City of Henderson continues to see long passport delays; Reaches capacity every day before opening

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - It’s an issue that’s been going on for nearly a year now. People are waiting in hours-long lines just to get their passports.

We reported on the passport delays back in June of last year and the city of Henderson said it is still reaching capacity every day starting at 6:30 in the morning and are having to turn people away.

“I woke up at 5 a.m. and got here at 5:30 a.m. and it is about 11 a.m. now,” said Nevada resident, Isabella Thornley.

Right now, getting a passport in Southern Nevada is not a plain and simple process.

“I came on Tuesday at 7 a.m. and they were already sending people back, so I had to go home and work around my work schedule and come back today,” said Thornley.

“What we are hearing from customers is that the post offices, the places that take appointments are booked four to five months out,” said city clerk operations manager Kristin Harrell.

The City of Henderson is the only place where people can walk in to get a passport and say they are serving over one hundred people a day.

“We thought we would see a drop in passport volume, but it has not happened,” said Harrell.

Harrell sai, the demand for passports hasn’t stayed this high in a long time.

“The media is calling it revenge travel because they have been cooped up a long time,” said Harrell. “Another thing we are seeing is some unprecedented low travel prices in cruises and some other types of travel.”

Harrell said they are doing their best get to every customer wanting a passport.

“It will be a long process and unfortunately that is just the nature of the beast and we are doing everything we can to get everyone through as quickly as possible,” said Harrell.

The City of Henderson is recommending you don’t book your travel before you get your passport because even with expediting, it is taking 5 to 7 weeks to receive a passport due to the department of state being backed up.

The doors open at 7:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday at Henderson city hall but again, they are reaching capacity at about 6:30 every morning so you will want to get there bright and early to get in line and expect to be here for a while.

Everything you need in order to get your passport can be found here.

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