Just sent mine off yesterday to Bern and was hoping someone could give me a recent report on how long it actually takes. The website says 2-3 weeks... but that sounds too good to be true.
I was wondering if any Americans have had experience with getting their passport renewed via mail.
I did. Sent it in September of 2021. It wasn't 2-3 weeks, but less than 6.
Just an update - Mailed my passport into Bern on Wed (arrived on Thursday) and had my new passport back the next Friday - 9 days. I’d say a pretty good turnaround.
It’s also the new NextGen US Passport. The photo page is hard plastic like a credit card.
Renewed my wife's passport this January. It took 3 weeks, but I dropped it off not mailed. I still thought it was amazingly fast.
Did she get the new NextGen Passport? It's the first time I'm seeing them - I think they just started rolling them out in late December.
When sending in by mail, do you do anything special (e.g. certified mail? courier service?)
Is it faster if you bring it to the embassy in Bern (or consulate in Zurich)? If so, do you have to have an appointment for dropping off?
I am flying back to the U.S. Dec. 17 and my passport expires March 11. I'm traveling until Oct. 13th so can't send in my passport until the 14th at the earliest. Nervous about turnaround times.
Seems like those of you who posted here recently had quick turnarounds.
follow the instructions on the Embassy's website. I think I just sent with standard postage - maybe including tracking.
mine was 9 days from drop off at the post office to receiving in my mailbox.
Registered Mail is not always the quickest. A or A+ much better.
While having a signature gives you a warm feeling it isn’t actually very useful.
Did mine in the spring, April I think, took about 2-3 weeks.
I don't think you'll have any issues with your time frame.
Another alternative is to fly back on old one, get new one while in USA. Depending on timing and where you'll be, you might qualify for expedited passport. Last I looked, early 2022, there was bigger backlogs in USA though, hopefully changed by now but not sure. Even less stressful if you have a second passport that gets you back to CH and you can do it afterwards, that's what I did in the end.
Probably better to do it here. It seems that citizens living outside the U.S. get priority service for passport renewals. In spring 2021, they were reporting long delays (10-12 weeks) for people to renew their U.S. passports within the U.S.
I renewed my passport in spring 2021 at Zurich (no mail-in renewal possible) and got my passport within two weeks.
Just to add another datapoint, I just renewed my US passport following the instruction for mail-in renewal via the embassy in Bern.
Paid the usual amount ($130) for standard renewal and sent in my old passport, required document prints, and posted return C5 envelope on a Tuesday afternoon 04.10.2022. I actually used the webstamp.post.ch service to directly print my stamp/shipping info onto a C5 envelope for both the outward and return envelopes; this was only 2.40 CHF each way with tracking included so pretty convenient. Was able to track the application status from https://passportstatus.state.gov/ and saw the new one was approved and mailed out from the US (to the embassy in Bern) on 07.10.2022. The new passport and my old one were then mailed from the embassy back to my address on the 13.10.2022 and I received it on the 14.10.2022.
Altogether, very happy with the 9-10 day turnaround. I also received one of the new NextGen passports.
Slightly different data point, as I renewed via the embassy in Paris rather than in Switzerland, but as others said, followed the advice on the website and had great results. In France, the instructions are that you are only to mail to the embassy using one or two approved services (Chronopost and Colissimo, from memory) and that you need to provide a certain type of stamped, tracked envelope from the post office for the return of your documents.
The whole process took about two weeks, and like others, I also received a NextGen passport with plastic ID page.