Americans are eager to see the world as Covid curbs ease – but passport delays are posing a hurdle

The World Health Organisation declared on May 5 that the Covid-19 pandemic is no longer a public health emergency. Although the virus is still causing hospitalisations and deaths, many travelers who were reluctant to go abroad because of the pandemic now feel freer to travel internationally again.

That’s going to be a whole lot easier to do this summer if you already have a valid passport. The wait times for getting one in the US are soaring. The US State Department says it can take up to 13 weeks for it to process passport applications, and up to nine weeks for expedited service that requires the payment of extra fees. It’s getting about 500,000 passport applications a week, which is at least 30% more than last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in March. And delays in processing were already aggravating in 2021 and 2022.

I’m among the many Americans who have had to cancel or delay trips because of the long wait times. I was hoping to fly to London for a weeklong break between teaching economics courses. Unfortunately, renewing my passport took so long I couldn’t go.

The government says staffing issues are contributing to the delays. As an economist who researches the everyday experiences of consumers, I wondered if there was more to the story, since international travel is a big...

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