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Current US passport wait? (Merged Threads)

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Old Mar 1, 2022, 6:35 am
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Last edit by: CKDGM
Passport Agency Appointments (same day expedited service)
Appointments for same-day expedited service often go quickly. It is best that you schedule your appointment with the passport agency exactly 14 days before your trip. You will want to call the passport number before the center opens at 8am EST as they will have just opened up one day (14 days out) of appointments at all agencies. Appointment times start at 8am. It is important that you have enough buffer in your travel schedule. For example, if you make an appointment for a new passport at 11am and your time of travel is at 2pm, there will not be enough time for you to get your passport. If you book the 8am slot you may have to wait until the end of the business day to get your new passport or it may only be a few hours.

You will want to have your date of travel, time of travel, your flight itinerary number, name of destination, full name of applicant, and applicant's birth city, and the zip code of where you live (to help them find the closest available center with open slots). Use the following steps to increase your chances of success to booking an appointment as they can go very quickly:
  1. 14 days before your trip, you need to schedule an appointment with the passport agency.
  2. At 7:55 am call the passport number 877-487-2778 (This have to be exactly 14 days before your plane ticket or less. If less, it will get harder to find an appointment)
  3. Click 1 (For English)
  4. Click 2 (New Passport)
  5. Continue to Click 7 to repeat, and keep doing this while watching your watch or using Time.gov to get the exact time down to the second.
  6. When your it hits exactly 8:00 am Click 2 (for traveling within 14 days option)
  7. There will be a delay of 3-4 second and you will wait for the next available agent. If you are very lucky, you will be put straight through to an agent. You may be waiting few minutes or maybe as long as 15-20 minutes.
  8. If you did not click 1 exactly at 8 am, you may have to wait for more than an hour and half
After the appointment slot has been reserved you will be provided with a unique identifier code and reservation number. These details will also be emailed to you.

Credit: chgoeditor

Known office locator numbers (not complete)
Note: The office code (first two digits of your application locator number returned by Passport Status) is the office reviewing your documents and approving your application. It isn't necessarily the address you mailed the forms to (always Irving or Philadelphia for renewals) nor the facility where the book is physically printed and mailed (often Tucson or Hot Springs).

10: Boston
11: NYC
12: Honolulu
14: Stamford, CT
15: Portsmouth, NH
17: Aurora, CO
18: Chicago
19: Washington, DC
20-29: Portsmouth, NH
34-39: Charleston
40-42: New Orleans, LA
45: Portsmouth, NH
50: Los Angeles, CA
51: Miami
53: Seattle
54: Minneapolis
55: Dallas
56: Detroit
57: San Francisco
58: Philadelphia, PA
61-64: Tucson
65: Hot Springs, AR
67: San Juan, PR
68: Portsmouth, NH
69: Portsmouth, NH
71: US embassies/consulates abroad (possibly Portsmouth, NH)
74: Atlanta
75: St Albans, VT
76: San Diego, CA
77: Buffalo, NY
78: El Paso, TX
79: Houston, TX
80: Special Issuance Agency ("Issues diplomatic, official, service, and no-fee regular passports, and facilitates visa processing for those traveling on behalf of the U.S. government.")
95: Online

A list of agencies and their locator numbers is listed on this page under the heading, "List of passport agencies and centers with locator numbers."

H/T Nayef, txviking, and various individual posts both here and on Reddit. If you have a locator not in the above list, check the return address agency name or postmark/ZIP on your returned citizenship docs, or passport card if you applied for one, which may be the processing office, although the address itself is likely to be a PO Box in Sterling, VA in all cases (which appears to be a lockbox location that processes mail for all locations). The passport books are printed in fewer locations, often Hot Springs and Tucson, and may not correspond to the agency where the processing steps occurred. If it doesn’t match the list above, please add or correct.
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Current US passport wait? (Merged Threads)

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Old Mar 14, 2016, 11:33 am
  #1  
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Current US passport wait? (Merged Threads)

Anyone know of a reliable way to determine the current wait times for US passport services? I mailed in my current passport book on Saturday to get a passport card. The post office said it would arrive today.

The State Dept website says that it's currently taking 7-10 business days to get applications loaded into their online application status tool. Any further ideas in how long this might take? I don't have any international plans until May (though would like to go up to Canada in about a month when we're in northern Vermont if it's back by then), but just curious.

Thanks!

edit: ugh, never mind. Apparently I can't Google. https://travel.state.gov/content/pas...ing-times.html
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Last edited by gfunkdave; Mar 14, 2016 at 12:17 pm
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Old Mar 15, 2016, 9:19 pm
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Originally Posted by gfunkdave
edit: ugh, never mind. Apparently I can't Google. https://travel.state.gov/content/pas...ing-times.html
Wow, 6 weeks? I renewed my passport near the end of November and it took 15 calendar days; I didn't pay for expedited service. So what is it about today that the State Department now warns that it will take 6 weeks to receive the new passport?
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Old Mar 16, 2016, 7:13 am
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I seem to remember them saying 6-8 weeks the last time I renewed my passport, and getting it in about 2-3 weeks. Perhaps they just consistently underpromise and overdeliver. Refreshing from government!
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Old Mar 16, 2016, 10:37 am
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Originally Posted by gfunkdave
I seem to remember them saying 6-8 weeks the last time I renewed my passport, and getting it in about 2-3 weeks. Perhaps they just consistently underpromise and overdeliver. Refreshing from government!
That is indeed the general approach. Most applicants are currently still getting them -- without paying the expedite fee -- within 4 weeks. And in-person applications from abroad are getting issued even faster.

There is a lot of the "managing expectations" involved in stating 6-8 weeks. Also, the expedite fee revenue may dry up if more people were confident about when they could get the passport back in 10-15 business days even without the expedite fee. And the government isn't so eager to give up revenue like this.
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Old Mar 16, 2016, 11:04 am
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On another forum, which is orientated to persons immigrating to the US, the members there keep a very detailed and comprehensive record of current real world US passport processing times. Looking at recent entries in their thread, it looks like passports are turning around in 10 days or so without expediting.


http://www.visajourney.com/forums/to...racker/page-99
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Last edited by Mabuk dan gila; Mar 30, 2016 at 6:08 am
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Old Mar 16, 2016, 11:06 am
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Also, I believe that 2006 was when they started requiring passports to go to Canada and Mexico, so all those people that got passports then are up for renewal now - thus the projected longer wait time.
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Old Mar 20, 2016, 8:27 am
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Thanks for the link to visajourney above.

FWIW, the event timing I've experienced is in line with visajourney's.

3/14 State Dept received the application
3/18 Check was cashed
3/20 Application became visible in the online application tracking site
3/26 Status changed to "Your passport application is in the final processing stages." with an estimated date of me receiving the passport on 4/3

Will update this as I remember to.

Last edited by gfunkdave; Mar 27, 2016 at 8:21 am
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Old Mar 29, 2016, 5:00 pm
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Received the passport card today. The website still says my application is in the final processing stages. Still waiting on the passport book to be returned.
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Old Apr 1, 2016, 8:45 am
  #9  
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Originally Posted by gfunkdave
Received the passport card today. The website still says my application is in the final processing stages. Still waiting on the passport book to be returned.
For what it's worth, I received mine about 2 weeks after receiving my new passport.
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Old Apr 1, 2016, 9:04 am
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Originally Posted by Analise
For what it's worth, I received mine about 2 weeks after receiving my new passport.
March usually has more passports in process than the majority of other months of the year. And government staff vacations in March may still be higher than they are in many other non-summer months.

I wouldn't have expected two weeks given gfunkdave's dates. I would have expected something exceeding 2 weeks. 3-4 weeks is more akin to what I may have expected in prior years for a comparable period of time, especially as we now have a wealthier population with more disposable income than in say 2007-2009.

My guess now is that the passport is back within the first 7 days of April, perhaps with a late March issue date.
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Old Apr 1, 2016, 9:05 am
  #11  
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Note that my existing passport book is still valid for another 6 years. I just had to send it in to get the card.
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Old Apr 1, 2016, 10:35 am
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Originally Posted by gfunkdave
Note that my existing passport book is still valid for another 6 years. I just had to send it in to get the card.
You weren't applying for a renewal passport too? Apparently not. My bad in that case.
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Old Apr 1, 2016, 4:50 pm
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...and I received my passport book back today.

Now that was quick service indeed!
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Old Apr 2, 2016, 8:48 am
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Originally Posted by gfunkdave
...and I received my passport book back today.

Now that was quick service indeed!
So just short of 3 weeks. Nice.
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Old May 28, 2016, 1:54 am
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Originally Posted by Mabuk dan gila
On another forum, which is orientated to persons immigrating to the US, the members there keep a very detailed and comprehensive record of current real world US passport processing times. Looking at recent entries in their thread, it looks like passports are turning around in 10 days or so without expediting.


http://www.visajourney.com/forums/to...racker/page-99
Thanks, this is super useful-- though the location field on their posts seems to imply that people were applying in person, not by mailing to the national center in philly. (That may be a requirement for pending NCs and/or first timers, not sure.) In any case, hopefully Philly's turn around time is in line.
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