U.S. Passports in Demand: Lines Look ‘Like a Rolling Stones Concert 25 Years Ago’

Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 03.14.07 | 7:38 AM ET

Travelers often get their passports for summer trips during March. Couple that with the new Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which requires U.S. citizens to carry passports on flights to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, and travelers are now facing huge lines and waits of up to 10 weeks to get their little blue book.

Demand is so high that the government is asking employees to work nights and weekends, and it will open a “mega-processing center” in Arkansas next month, according to the Los Angeles Times. But that isn’t helping travelers who need to a passport, like, now. “People have to be forewarned,” Susan Fogwell, a United Airlines flight attendant from Princeton, N.J., told the Times. “If they think they’re flitting off to Paris in two weeks, it’s going to be a nightmare.”