I went in a passport for renewal a couple of weeks ago with the form, old one, check, and photos.
Today I got an envelope form the State Dept in Portsmouth, NH. All it contained was the old passport with a hole punched in the cover, and one of the two photos stapled to it. No explanation, no indication if and when the new one would arrive.
Is this normal? If so, when might the new one come? I tried to wade through their website to find out, with no success.
U.S. Passport Application Status.
When I had mine renewed a few months back, the new passport arrived before the cancelled old one, so I’m a little surprised to hear that your experience is the other way around.
Thank you, Mike. I must have missed that on the website, but it was exactly what I needed. It stated that the passport would come Priority mail, probably on the 22nd.
That was incredibly easy, way too simple for government work. 
I got my passport, old passport, and passport card in that order and in 3 different mailings.
I just did this a couple of weeks ago myself. Got the new passport about 3 weeks after I mailed the application/photos. The holepunched old book arrived perhaps a week later. I just looked at the old one but there’s no photos stapled or anything like that.
[hijack]I was amused to see that the “America The Beautiful” annual national parks pass that I ordered came with a packing list printed on 14 7/8" by 11" green bar paper. I thought the last of those printers went the way of the dinosaur over a decade ago.[/hijack]
When I renewed my US passport here in Tokyo, I sent a cashier’s check, application, old passport and photos to the local embassy. I got back the old and the new passport in the same mailing about a week later.
Yeah, amazing, isn’t it? Straighforward, unfussy, and quick! (Oh, I feel for those poor unfortunates that had to deal with the “OMG Everyone Get Your Passport NOW!” rush a couple of years ago…)
Portsmouth, eh? My documents got handled by the New Orleans office.