2023 is turning out to be the year of travel after a long pandemic pause.

Because of that, travelers are swamping passport offices, and you could face a surprising delay.

If you search for a shortcut online, you could end up scammed, according to the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts.

Evionne Wylie was applying for her first passport, hoping to get it months before she needs it.

"I'm not in a rush to go anywhere, so the time frame is fine with me," she said.

It's a wise move, as she's heard that passports are taking longer to arrive this year.

Clerk of Courts Pavan Parikh said he is doing everything he can to help applicants, but says the passport office in D.C. is backed up.

"This really started about a year ago as we started to come out of COVID," he said, "but really it's gone through the roof."

Now, he said some people are waiting almost four months.

"The State Department was saying 8 to 10 weeks for a regular, now they are saying 10 to 13 weeks," he said.

Warning about websites that claim to help

With the process taking so long, some people are going online looking for expedited passports.

But beware, that can lead to problems.

"There is no reason to believe it would speed up the process," he warned. "And quite frankly you are putting your information out there in the hands of people that are not the government."

Parikh said suspicious websites are charging up to $100 to do what you can do for free, by simply going to the state department's website, or a motor vehicle title office — at least in Ohio.

All passport websites should end in .gov, as in government. The official site is travel.state.gov.

Parikh suggests paying the passport office an extra $60 for official expedited processing, which speeds it up by a few weeks.

Owen Dingle said he's giving his plenty of time to arrive, as he doesn't want to miss his international trip.

"I've heard they are generally pretty long to come in," he said, waiting for his turn at the passport window.

So get that passport, or that renewal, months before you need it so you don't waste your money.

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