Opinion ID: 182528
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Statements on the Department's Website

Text: We turn next to Chattler's assertion that the statements on the Department's website were an offer to contract, wherein the government promised to return her passport to her within two to three weeks in exchange for payment of the expedite fee. The relevant statement on the website includes the following table: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- If you apply today And Choose What to expect ------------------------------------------------------------------------ At a Passport Routine Service We will process Acceptance your application Facility within four to six or weeks from time of receipt ------------------------------------------------------------------------ By Mail (for renewal, Expedited We will process additional Service your application pages, and Plus Overnight within about 3 amendment) delivery service Weeks (door-to-door for: see note Spending your below) application and Barrett Decl. 32. The  footnote reads:   Expedite Service: If you apply for your passport today and request Expedited Passport Processing, you can expect to receive your passport in about 3 weeks. The 3 week estimated timeframe for receipt of your passport takes into consideration the additional time it may take to receive your passport application at a Passport Agency/Center when you apply for Expedited Passport Processing through a designated Passport Acceptance Facility and for the passport to be mailed to you. It may take longer for customers who apply for a renewal by mail without Expedite marked on the mailing envelope. Effective August 16, 2007, the Department's standard for expedited passport processing completion, as defined in 22 C.F.R. 51.66, is ten business days from. . . receipt of your passport application at a Passport Agency/Center . . . . Expedited passport processing is considered complete when the passport is ready to be picked by an applicant or when it is put in the mail to the applicant. Id. These statements do not constitute an offer to contract. The phrase We will process your application within about 3 Weeks is under the heading of What to expect, and the     note explicitly says that an applicant can expect to receive [her] passport in about 3 weeks. Id. (emphases added). The note also explains that three weeks is merely an estimated timeframe. Id. (emphasis added). These statements use language of intention or prediction, not obligation, and thus do not constitute offers to contract. See Cutler-Hammer, 441 F.2d at 1182 (The obligation of the government, if it is to be held liable, must be stated in the form of an undertaking, not as a mere prediction or statement of opinion or intention.).