FARMINGTON – Franklin County Register of Probate Joyce Morton, who handles passport applications at the county courthouse, learned in early April that passports were taking four weeks longer than usual to process.

“I had a lot of people panicking because they had applied for passports and it was taking a longer time,” Morton said.

It was crunch time and she started making calls.

It is now taking 10 weeks for normal processing of passports. Expedited passport applications that people pay an additional $60 for are taking four weeks, instead of two, she said.

“I thought the public should be aware it’s taking longer,” Morton said.

New travel laws went into effect Jan. 23 that require people traveling by air into and out of the U.S. to have a passport or other acceptable official travel document. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are American soil and passports aren’t needed to visit there.

Passport facilities such as the county service offered by Morton, post offices and some town offices are experiencing record demand for passports, which has increased the processing time, Steve Royster, a spokesman for consular affairs at the U.S. Department of State, said Wednesday.

People planning to fly anywhere outside of the U.S. should plan ahead for at least 10 weeks to obtain a passport unless they expedite it, Royster said.

“We are trying to get back to two weeks for expedited passports,” Royster said.

This year’s pace has the nation on target to issue 17.7 million passports, up from 12 million issued in 2006 and 10 million issued in 2005, Royster said. The State Department is working on another part of the travel initiative for people traveling by land in and out of the U.S. that is expected to be implemented next year.

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative that went into effect Jan. 23 requires travelers to and from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda to present a passport or other acceptable document that establishes the bearer’s identity and nationality to enter or re-enter the United States. The goal is to strengthen border security and facilitate entry into the United States for U.S. citizens and legitimate international travelers, according to the U.S. Department of State Web site.

Royster said travelers can go to the Web site travel.state.gov/passports to learn what documentation is needed to support a passport application and the nearest place that handles passport applications.

The price of passports for adults, which are good for 10 years, is $97 for first-time passports and $67 to renew it, Royster said.

Children’s $82 passports are good for five years and then have to be renewed.