US passport applications drop sharply as economy worsens

As the recession leads to a major downturn in foreign travel, passport applications by Americans have dropped significantly, and the lighter workload at passport issuing offices run by the State Department means that documents are being issued in under three weeks in many cases.

Last week, the State Department reported that it anticipated issuing 12 million passports in 2009, which is approximately 25 percent fewer than in 2008. Early in December, the forecast was for 17 million passports to be issued.

The demand for passports has fallen so rapidly that the State Department has been forced into reducing its number of contract employees, who typically process payments and key in data. The department’s deputy assistant secretary for passport services, Brenda Sprague, noted that no cuts in full-time staff were planned at this time. These are the employees responsible for validating an applicant’s citizenship.

In California, a state normally having the largest number of passport applicants, 36 percent fewer passports were issued in January 2009 than during the same month in 2008, noted Howard Josephs, who is the customer service manager at the Los Angeles Passport Agency. In December, the number issued was down by 32 percent over the previous December.

The manager of a Los Angeles photo studio that offers passport photo services, John Kim, said that business in January was down by 15 percent or more as compared with last January.

www.state.gov