AUSTIN (KXAN) — If you need to get your vehicle registration updated in the next few weeks you better start planning for it now.

A huge backlog at Travis County’s tax offices is leading to long waits and big headaches.

“Our appointments backed up, our drive-thru backed up, I mean, everything backed up,” said Bruce Elfant, Travis County tax assessor.

Tens of thousands of people are waiting to get a title transfer or to get a Texas tag in Travis County.

Early on in the pandemic, the governor waived certain vehicle registration, titling and parking placard regulations then almost a year later, the waiver expired, and the tax office has been playing catchup ever since.

When the waiver expired in early April 2021, Elfant says all at once it had more than a years’ worth of people coming in to do paperwork. Initially, the office had a backlog of 300,000 titles and registrations that people had not done in the previous year.

There are also issues filling some of the positions some employees have left and it’s hard to hire new ones.

“We’re hoping you know, in January in the early part of next year, we can have just about all of our positions filled and we will get back to what was our normal which wasn’t great,” said Elfant. “I’m with 150 people moving here every day, it’s a challenge for a customer-facing office to keep up with that kind of growth.”

Some people can renew registrations online or at HEB or Fiesta, but your best bet is to get an appointment sooner rather than later.