There’s a helpful, but worrisome article in the San Francisco Chronicle about massive, and expensive delays in getting passports.

You are now requires to have a passport to fly into Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and Bermuda. Starting in 2008, travel by land and sea to those destinations will also require passports. Needless to say, the increased need for passports is crunching the system.

We saw a friend head to Europe with a new born, and have to turn around to get a passport for the baby, no exceptions. Their trip was delayed a day while they scrambled.

The article details costs and expected delays.

Don’t think this is a problem in the San Francisco Bay Area, passport delays are happening around the country. If you and family are leaving the country and someone doesn’t have a passport - take action now.

Here is the article link - http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/06/03/MNGDEQ6SFU1.DTL