Delay reactions

Travel: A backlog in passports has bureaucrats on 24-hour call and air travelers fuming | Priya Abraham

Kara McElheny was ready for her school art trip to Italy. The 17-year-old had covered the costs, raising $3,000 for her plane ticket and accommodations through church fundraising and by working at a local lodge in New Mexico. At midnight on June 1, five hours before her plane was to leave, she sat with bags packed for the airport, missing just one thing: her passport.

Kara applied for her passport in early March, told by passport officials it would take eight to 10 weeks to arrive—in plenty of time for her trip. Instead, some 11 weeks later at the 11th hour, Kara was still waiting, one of thousands of Americans who have applied for a passport this year only to be snatched up in a thick backlog of applications.