The U.S. State Department says it is not expecting to reduce passport processing times to pre-pandemic levels until the end of the year, news that is likely to frustrate travelers who have had their summer travel plans disrupted by having to factor in waiting months to get a new passport before going abroad."We are working hard to get back to our pre-pandemic processing times by the end of calendar year 2023," a State Department spokesperson said. "We will update our website with the current processing times as we make progress towards this goal."In March, the department increased the processing time for new passports to 10 to 13 weeks for routine processing and seven to nine weeks for expedited processing, which costs an additional $60. The wait time before the pandemic was two to three weeks for expedited cases and six to eight weeks for routine passport applications.Factoring in major passport processing delays is just one of many obstacles hitting the travel plans of Americans this summer. CNN has reported on thousands of flights being canceled across the U.S. and they are more expensive, as are hotels and rental cars, than prior to the pandemic.The State Department – which says that it is meeting the current promised processing times in "the vast majority of cases" – has been putting additional resources towards meeting the challenge of a major increase in applications."We are focused on hiring, training, and retaining staff to address the current surge in demand. We have increased staffing levels and have hundreds of additional staff in the hiring pipeline," the spokesperson said. "Our staff is working tens of thousands of hours of overtime a month. In fact, from January through June, we authorized 30,000-40,000 overtime hours each month."Secretary of State Tony Blinken has addressed the "unprecedented demands" for passports. He told Congress earlier this year that the department is "getting 500,000 applications a week for passports," which is 30% to 40% more applicants this year than last year.Blinken also said that the department had launched a pilot online renewal platform so Americans who already have a passport can renew online, but added that it was halted to fine-tune and improve it before being rolled out.Now, the spokesperson says that the department expects an online passport renewal system to be available to the public at the end of the year."Once fully launched, we expect five million customers to be eligible to use this platform each year to renew their passports. We estimate this would represent two-thirds of all renewals and roughly 25% of all applications received. In time, OPR (online passport renewals) will save Americans time and effort, making it more convenient to renew their passports," the spokesperson said.

The State Department on Sunday ordered the families of all American personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine to leave the country amid heightened fears of a Russian invasion.The department told the dependents of staffers at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv that they must leave the country. It also said that non-essential embassy staff could leave Ukraine at government expense.The move came amid rising tensions about Russia's military buildup on the Ukraine border that were not eased during talks Friday between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva.State Department officials stressed the Kyiv embassy will remain open and that the announcement does not constitute an evacuation. The move had been under consideration for some time and does not reflect an easing of U.S. support for Ukraine, the officials said.In a statement, the State Department noted recent reports that Russia was planning significant military action against Ukraine. However, the Russian Foreign Ministry has accused NATO countries of escalating tensions around Ukraine with disinformation.The State Department added: “The security conditions, particularly along Ukraine’s borders, in Russia-occupied Crimea, and in Russia-controlled eastern Ukraine, are unpredictable and can deteriorate with little notice. Demonstrations, which have turned violent at times, regularly occur throughout Ukraine, including in Kyiv."

Video above: Afghanistan on brink of poverty under TalibanThe State Department informed congressional staff Thursday that it is in touch with 363 U.S. citizens in Afghanistan, 176 of whom want to leave, two sources familiar with the call told CNN.The figures presented on that call underscore the ongoing challenge faced by the Biden administration as Americans continue to come forward to seek help in leaving Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover and the chaotic U.S. withdrawal.Thursday's numbers — combined with evacuation figures since Aug. 31 — present a far higher count of Americans looking to leave Afghanistan than the administration publicly estimated at the time of the U.S. withdrawal.The day prior to the U.S. evacuation was completed at the end of August, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the State Department was tracking "a small number of Americans, under 200 and likely closer to 100, who remain in Afghanistan and want to leave."More than 200 U.S. citizens have been evacuated by the U.S. government in the nearly two months since the military withdrawal, but the number of Americans who are seeking to leave Afghanistan is still in the range of 100 to 200 people.State Department spokesperson Ned Price noted this week that more people have come forward amid the ongoing evacuation efforts.Biden administration officials have consistently pointed to the difficulty of tracking the number of U.S. citizens in the country, and it is unclear how many total Americans were in the country at the time of the U.S. withdrawal on Aug. 31.In his remarks at the end of August, Blinken noted that there "are long-time residents of Afghanistan who have American passports, and who were trying to determine whether or not they wanted to leave.""Many are dual-citizen Americans with deep roots and extended families in Afghanistan, who have resided there for many years. For many, it's a painful choice," he said."If an American in Afghanistan tells us that they want to stay for now, and then in a week or a month or a year they reach out and say, 'I've changed my mind,' we will help them leave," Blinken added.On Thursday evening, Price tweeted that the U.S. "has facilitated the departure of 234 U.S. citizens and 144 LPRs from Kabul since August 31.""These are the numbers of people whose individual departures we directly facilitated. An additional number of U.S. citizens and LPRs have departed on private charters or have independently crossed via a land border," another State Department spokesperson told CNN Friday."The number of U.S. citizens and LPRs we assist is dynamic as we review manifests, receive reports from colleagues in the field, and assist with departures," they said.In addition to the more than 100 U.S. citizens who are seeking assistance in leaving Afghanistan, there are scores of Afghans — many of whom worked for the U.S. military — who were left behind during the U.S. military withdrawal and are desperately trying to leave.