When the pandemic started, all kinds of rules changed in the travel world. For example, at airlines, hotels, etc., no one wanted you to travel if you knew or suspected you had Covid. So you could cancel or change your plans without penalty. Other rules changed because companies didn’t want their workers to spread or catch the virus – so travel companies’ call centers, for example, started allowing their employees to work remotely on a much larger-scale basis than ever before.
Meanwhile, some U.S. government agencies seemingly just…shut down…for months on end. Passport offices closed up shop and processing virtually stopped, save for dire emergency situations, causing a backlog of millions of applications and renewals that needed to be worked on.
Once passport offices reopened, it was a slow process. At first, only a handful of offices, with a limited amount of workers, opened their doors. Numbers of both gradually increased stateside, but at U.S. Embassies and Consulates around the world, where passports for Americans living overseas would typically be renewed, processing could still be extremely slow, if it was happening at all. Lockdowns kept such places closed, and since The Great Resignation had hit virtually all sectors, sometimes finding people willing to work at such places was an issue.
In response to this problem, the State Department ruled in May 2021 that through the end of the year, U.S. citizens living abroad could return to the U.S. with an expired passport. In December 2021, that time period was extended to March, 2022. And in late March, it was extended through June 30, 2022.
Things must be doing OK now. “Because the U.S. State Department can now accommodate routine and emergency passport issuance without excessive wait times, the temporary authorization to travel with some expired U.S. passports will not be extended.” the State Department wrote on its website. “After June 30, U.S. citizens will no longer be allowed to use their expired U.S. passport for direct return to the United States.”
“If your passport has expired, please contact your nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate to apply for a U.S. passport,” the State Department added.
So effective today, all passports, whether new or renewed, must be active, not expired, to re-enter the U.S.
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