Sweating out the passport wait in Seattle

Asked if the national passport-processing backlog affected his travel plans, Derek Mills smirked in annoyance.

About 3 p.m. Wednesday, Mills was waiting for his passport to be printed at the downtown Seattle passport office. His flight to Los Angeles for a connection to Europe was leaving in a half-hour.

He applied for the more expensive, expedited passport more than six weeks ago. It was supposed to take two to four weeks to process.

Mills, a 20-year-old student, was one of several people trying to get last-minute passports at the office Wednesday, and one of millions of travelers nationwide who have been affected by a three-month backlog in passport processing after travel regulations proposed by the Bush administration burdened the system with an onslaught of new applications.

Americans traveling between the U.S. and Mexico, Canada or the Caribbean didn't need passports before a new law that was scheduled to take effect this year. The law change was part of recent attempts to secure U.S. borders.

Agents at the Seattle office have been working overtime and on weekends trying to catch up. The office expects 15 to 20 percent more applications this year than last, according to Seattle Passport Agency representatives.

That's because the backlog has sent many out-of-state travelers to the Seattle office, a regional center serving 11 states, to fix their passport troubles.

Peter Rose and his mother, Mary, were waiting at the office after driving from Portland. Rose is scheduled to leave for Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday. He applied for his passport in April and didn't worry about the backlog because an agent at the Denver office where he applied assured him he'd have the passport in 10 weeks, even writing the assertion on the application.

By last week, it seemed clear he wasn't getting his passport. After a drive from Portland, an overnight stay at the Seattle Sheraton and a full day of work missed, the trip for the passport cost $400, his mother estimated. At least, though, processing fees were waived.

"What we need today is to leave with something physically in our hands," said Mary Rose.

Trip Atkins, assistant regional director for the Seattle Passport Agency, recommends that travelers with pending applications who need to travel immediately make an appointment with the regional office.

Mills didn't get his passport until 4 p.m. — too late to catch his flight. But he and his mother scrambled to the airport to find another flight for him. They did, and with some luck, he had a ticket for Europe by early evening.

"It was a fantastic ending, no thanks to the State Department," said his mother, Lynn Hyde.