Crowds of people waited in the lobby and outside the federal building that houses the Chicago passport office.
Scott Roth drove to Chicago from Louisville, Kentucky.
He applied in March to renew a passport for a business trip this Sunday to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
He still hasn’t heard anything.
ROTH: Since we had a 9 a.m. appointment, we thought we’d walk in, everything would be taken care of. To find that the line was wrapped around the building was quite surprising, and the fact that the appointment meant nothing is pretty discouraging.
The State Department Website says it opened a new passport processing center and increased staffing to respond to demand.
The department didn’t return calls for comment.
For Chicago Public Radio, I’m Miriam Gottfried.