With the pandemic behind us, the demand for travel has resulted in a large increase in people either applying for passports or renewing their passports. Unfortunately, the federal government has not been processing these applications very efficiently with routine passport applications taking up to 13 weeks and even people paying the extra $60 for expedited processing taking up to 9 weeks.  Capitalizing on the frustration many would-be travelers are facing, scammers are setting up websites that appear to be either a government website or a website for a company that promises to speed up your application.  In both cases, people using these websites end up paying for passports they never receive or providing information that leads to their identity being stolen.

TIPS

The only place to apply for a passport or to apply for a passport renewal is the official website of the State Department.  Here is a link to that site https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports.html

Websites that promise to be able to speed up the process for you, regardless of how legitimate they may appear are scams.  Plain and simple.

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