Passport App being "held"? Please help me understand this....

Bluegrass1

Registered Users (C)
Hi, I am hoping that someone can tell me how to proceed. I have posted here before but I can give more details. The passport we applied for is for my infant son, who we adopted from Asia. The adoption is now final and we needed to apply for a US Passport for him to establish citizenship with Social Security etc. According to the Child Citizenship Act of 2002, once a child from another country is adopted by American parents, he/she automotically acquires US Citizenship once the adoption is final. Our adoption has been final for about 8 weeks.

We were supposed to submit (along with the passport application), his green card, the final court decree of Adoption, and the new US birth certificate. We had applied for a SS# but had not yet received the card at the time we applied for his passport.

So, we applied for the passport at a local post office on 3/30/09 and paid extra for expedited service. The guy took the passport photos and I was a little concerned that the photo of our son had his head tilted a little bit but the guy at the post office assured me all would be fine.

So on Monday (4/6) I checked the status online and it said "currently being processed"..."should be delivered on or about 4/10/09".

Since then I have checked the status each day and it says the same thing. I decided to call the NPIC on Wednesday (4/8) just to see what they said.

When I called Wednesday morning (4/8) the lady simply said it was being processed, and that the dates listed on the website (checking status online) were not usually accurate.

I called back on the same day (4/8) about 1:15 pm and spoke to a gentleman this time. He looked up the info and said that it looks like the application is being "held" at this point. When I asked what that meant, he said that it could be being "held" because their is a problem, or it could be because they are verifying info or something of that sort. He said that he would e-mail the New Orleans Passport folks and have them to contact me within 72 hours. This really had me worried. Apparently it's impossible for a person to just contact New Orleans directly (we live in the midwest).

I called the NPIC back at 4:00 just to see what they said again. This time a lady told me that it was "currently being processed"! I asked her if she was showing that it was being "held" or anything or if there were any problems and she said that as far as she could tell, it was currently being processed.

I called the NPIC back one last time at 6:30pm again on 4/8 and this time spoke to a man. He said that it was currently being processed, and that it "looks like" they are almost finished with it. I asked him about the other person telling me it was being "held" earlier and he said that he saw that person's notes on the account but that right now it was showing "currently being processed" and he said it looks like they "had it back out working on it at 10:54 today", whatever that means? He also said again that it looks like "they are almost ready to finish it up".

So now, I don't what to think? As of this morning (Thursday, 4/9) the online status still says "currently being processed", BUT now it says should be delivered on or about 4/15/09 (it had always said 4/10/09 until this morning)

What do you think?

I'm sorry for the long story but I was hoping if I explained everything here then perhaps some folks here might know more about how all this works and be able to help me understand. Thank you so much!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Relax, wait another week or so. Passports are taking a bit longer now that summer is near.

Thanks, what do you think about the being "held" when I called at one point? And now the date has been moved from 4/10 to 4/15? Sign of a problem?
 
What do you think?

I think you should relax! Assuming everything you typed is accurate, there appears no reason for the passport not to be issued. You seem to be stressing was before there may even be a problem at all - you called to passport office 4 times in one day! - only 8 days after you applied. As for the "being held" - in all probability it was while documents were being checked - which is to be expected. It you hadn't been calling so much, the passport would be moving through the stages of processing, and you would have been unaware of that stage.

Just try to forget about it for a week, and it will, in all probability, magically appear. If is doesn't, start ringing and "looking for a problem" then.

I'll check back here in a week or so, for your post that says "I got it, no problems, I was stressing unneccessarily" LOL
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think you should relax! Assuming everything you typed is accurate, there appears no reason for the passport not to be issued. You seem to be stressing was before there may even be a problem at all - you called to passport office 4 times in one day! - only 8 days after you applied. As for the "being held" - in all probability it was while documents were being checked - which is to be expected. It you hadn't been calling so much, the passport would be moving through the stages of processing, and you would have been unaware of that stage.

Just try to forget about it for a week, and it will, in all probability, magically appear. If is doesn't, start ringing and "looking for a problem" then.

I'll check back here in a week or so, for your post that says "I got it, no problems, I was stressing unneccessarily" LOL

First of all, thank you so much....I really needed to hear that. A lady from the New Orleans office called me a few minutes ago (very very nice lady) who it was now being processed in document review and that there had been an "exception" that caused the application to be put on hold but apparently they had resolved it because it was put back in document review for processing. She said that the lady who was processing it in document review had finished it and now it was waiting to be given the final approval from her supervisor. Does that make sense? She said that she would call me if there was a problem she was aware of, but otherwise she would not. I'm a nervous wreck, the Social Security folks will not issue my son (who is 1 year old) a SSN without a US Passport.
 
Top