and finally tonight do not procrastinate if you've got upcoming travel plans the state department warns the agency is facing unprecedented demand for passports some 500 000 applications a week putting the federal government on track to break the record high number issued last year it seems Americans have the travel itch with the worst of covid-19 behind us and as Melissa Rose Cooper reports that means expect delays if you have less than a year on your passport and you have any idea that you might travel to go get it renewed with more people beginning to feel comfortable traveling since the pandemic began three years ago Union County Clerk Joanne rajapi says there's a big influx in the number of passport applications usually it's about a hundred a week in our Westfield office and it's way above that as well as here in Elizabeth New Jersey isn't alone U.S Secretary of State Anthony blinken confirms the state department is seeing an unprecedented demand for passports across the country we're getting 500 000 applications a week for a passport uh that's 30 to 40 percent above last year so it's it's dramatic now in FY 22 we issued a record number of passport books 22 million we're on track to break that in FY 23 but that increase is now leading to significant delays in passport processing and deliver three Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon says their office gets about 20 complaints a day and one of the biggest complaints is that it's very hard to get somebody on the phone uh in the federal government or people waiting for a long time to reach someone or you know they're hung up on um so people are very distressed because obviously people are thinking about travel plans and they're not getting either their passport or the assistance that they need normally you know a routine service is about eight weeks and now the federal government is saying that the routine service will be 10 to 15 weeks and expedited Services normally four to eight weeks they're saying now seven to nine weeks so they've really increased the time period for which you need to have before a trip in order to get that passport back and have it in place in order to travel abroad because normally you would not need it unless you're leaving the country many Travelers are now turning to Facebook groups like this to express their frustrations some people noting they've been waiting for six months and still no passports and unfortunately uh as a passport agency we can't help people once the passport leaves our office you know because we're just helping with processing all of the um issuance of passports is done by the federal government so people are frustrated because they can't get through to the federal government they call us but we're not even allowed to call on their behalf County clerks say the best advice they can give to people right now is to apply for a passport as early as possible especially since many countries don't accept passports that expire within six months and if you find yourself in an emergency there are a limited amount of state agencies that can create the passport on the spots but you must show proof of need and clerks warn appointments are very difficult to get for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper [Music]