My 1st ever adult passport. Guess how long I had to wait for it? 

Confession: I never had an adult passport until this year. I know I had one as a child since I remember taking trips to Canada, South Korea, and the Philippines then. As an adult, all my trips have been domestic, with only one trip done by flight, and I flew way before the Real ID requirement. While adult me has wanted to take international trips, they were never within my budget, and so I never bothered to get a passport. Until this year, and it’s not just for travel needs (I have plans on taking a birthday trip to Vancouver). As a Bi woman of color with a look and skin tone that may make “Border Patrol” curious, I felt like having a passport would also give me some peace of mind, whether to prove citizenship or to get TF outta here if I need to. Along with cuts to federal agencies thanks to evil broligarchs, I couldn’t have picked a worser year to apply for my first-ever passport! 😵‍💫

*Appointment Date: 5/12/2025*

Since my birthday is at the end of October, I had plenty of time to get myself a passport. I applied for Routine processing, booked my appointment in advance (I refused to take a chance with walk-ins), and had all the necessary documents and the $160 money order.  A pro-tip: if you need a birth certificate, it’s better to go to the office of vital records of the county you were born in and buy one (or multiple copies, if allowed) there instead of having it mailed to you from the state, if you can. It’s cheaper, no notary service necessary, and you get your birth certificate on the spot. I happen to live 40 minutes from the county I was born in, though I wish I knew this before I applied to get my birth certificate in the mail way back in February this year. (It arrived in the mail in late April; a two-month wait is typical.) I just went to the city hall of my birth county to get more copies, as I needed another one for my Real ID application. 

Anyway, back to my passport appointment: I had it at my local post office, and some crotchety old guy looked over my papers and also took my passport photos. We had to do a few takes because the first few photos came out blurry. There’s more on this that I’ll share later. The guy told me to visit travel.state.gov three weeks after my appointment to check the status of my passport application, which would be early June. 

So, early June arrived, and I checked the status of my application. I got this:

(Note: this isn’t my pic, but the message was the same. *source*)

I didn’t sweat it. I had well over four months before my planned trip to Canada, and I also opted for Routine processing, so I figured I would see an update by the six-week mark at the soonest. That six-week mark was end of June, and here’s what I saw then:

Same message. OK. I’m still within the 6-8 week processing timeframe. Maybe in the 7th week I’d get an update? 

It didn’t help that I was reading other people’s passport stories on Reddit and this site. Some, if not many, were getting theirs on time, if not sooner than me, and they too also applied for their 1st adult passport and used Routine service. When the 8-week mark arrived in mid-July, I found myself checking the status every day. And, I shit you not, I got the same “not available” status message every damn time. I checked to see if my money order got cashed (it did, a week after my appointment). I went to my local post office to see if my application got sent in (it was, to some office in Irving, Texas). I even contacted the offices of my local congressman to help me out (they tried but couldn’t). 

Though my travel plans were still over three months away, I began to fret. Did my application get lost? Or was it received but the agency is being lazy in processing it? Why didn’t I apply for a passport two years ago? 

*7/22/2025* 

Ten weeks after my appointment, I got an email that said this: 

Finally, my application is “in process”, after waiting ten effing weeks for an update! It was here that I found out that the processing time starts when they *receive* my application, not after I did my appointment. 

Cue all the 😭 emojis. One silver lining that is knowing that my application was being processed in the San Francisco location (locator numbers & its location can be found here). It’s nice knowing I could take BART to the agency and pester them if I got antsy on my status. 

I’m glad I signed up for status updates to be emailed to me so I didn’t have to keep checking the website for updates. Three days after that email, I got this: 

The info they needed, by the way, was a new passport photo as mines didn’t come out clear enough for them. I paid a crotchety old guy to take my passport pic, only for it to be rejected (and delay my application in the process) because he can’t take a clear pic for his life. 

Again, cue all the 😭 emojis.

Another pro-tip: for your passport photo, if you got some photo paper, a good printer, and know a place with white or off-white walls, take a selfie instead! Contrary to what the US Department of State says, it’s actually allowed provided that you follow some guidelines. I ended up taking a ton of selfies in my apartment (which has off-white walls), and I’m glad I had some 4X6 glossy photo paper around to print out my pics. There are some free passport photo services you can use, such as Passport Photo Editor (phone app version is better, IMO) or this site. 

I became so hellbent on getting my passport asap that I ended up sending another money order along with my new photo to pay to expedite the whole thing. I even paid extra for Express Mail delivery because over two months of waiting was too damn long. And for further proof of my incessant need for my passport, I mailed the letter that contained my new photo and the money order via Certified Mail, as I didn’t want any of that to be lost in transit. 

*8/13/2025* (now THREE months since I applied for my passport!) 

Status update:

My application was still under Routine processing then. It took two weeks to see the update to Expedited. (Also on this day: I went to my local DMV to apply for my Real ID and renew my driver’s license. I ending up getting them before my passport.) 

*The final days of August*

Status updates (from 8/29):

And 8/30: 

And on the first Wednesday of September, after 15 agonizing weeks of waiting and worrying and spending an extra $80+ for it all, I finally received it–my 1st ever Adult passport. 😭🥳 To those who got their 1st adult passports sooner and under the exact same conditions as me, I hate you count yourself blessed because I had to wait for eons and jump through a fuck ton more hoops than y’all. Routine processing was a joke in my case; it was Routine processing alright, in 2021 times, when applicants waiting for months was the norm. You best believe I will be expediting my shit come renewal time ten years from now. 

So this was my timeline. It was long AF and ugly at times, but at least it’s finally over. Off to see if my vacation rental homes in Vancouver that I saved back in June on VRBO are still available. 😅

**Update 9/6/25: my passport card arrived (in a basic letter envelope but delivery was quick)

**Update 9/12/25: received my supporting documents (just my birth certificate) in the mail, in a plain brown letter envelope that I didn’t know I’d be getting today (it didn’t show up in my USPS Informed Delivery email for today).