PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) – The backlog in passport applications – caused by a change in international travel rules – is clearing at the National Passport Center in Portsmouth, the center’s director said.

Earlier this year, the shelves at the passport processing center at the Pease International Tradeport were bulging with documents. Today those shelves are mostly empty after the government brought in 200 new workers and recruited State Department workers from all over the world to help get through all the work, said Tyrone Shelton, the center’s director.

Shelton said the center has processed nearly 3 million passports since March as Americans hurried to catch up with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which took effect in January, and requires passports for travel to Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean.

Shelton said the surge began the first week of March, when the center received 179,000 applications, compared to the usual 70,000 to 80,000. “It only got worse from there,” he said.

After that, “I think we got up to about 240,000 applications a week. And, literally, it all crashed in on us within about that one month period, the beginning of March through the beginning of April.”

Shelton said there are plans move into larger office space in the tradeport and hire more workers next year. To deal with the surge in the meantime, the center brought in 70 shelving units – each holding up to 3,500 passport applications. When space at the passport center maxed out, workers commandeered an exercise room in the National Visa Center next door.

The State Department called in a range of workers to get through all the paperwork – from graduate students in a government fellowship program to career and retired diplomats who volunteered to pitch in.

Carolyn Huggins, formerly the consul general in Rome, is one of the retired State Department workers who helped out.

“It’s sort of like a family,” she said. “We have a crisis quite often. Last summer it was in Lebanon, where we were evacuating Americans.”

Huggins arrived at the passport center in July. She said workers have cut through the backlog dramatically since then, and by last week, she was working on applications submitted the week before.

Foreign service officer Daniela DiPierro worked on passport applications between moving from her old post in Mexico to her new assignment in Naples, Italy.

DiPierro said she spent her time off exploring New Hampshire and has been won over.

“It’s so picturesque here,” she said. “The people are friendly and helpful. I’m actually thinking of buying property around here, it’s just so beautiful.”

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Information from: New Hampshire Union Leader, http://www.unionleader.com