Originally Posted by pinniped

We've had to do this for our kids.

In Kansas City, getting an appointment is the harder part: you have to go to a post office in person, get the appointment, and then come back 8-12 weeks later for your appointment slot. We did this last year: I happened to be in the main Union Station post office the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and they had one appointment slot open in late July.

In other parts of the country, it's a lot easier. We did our other kid while we were on vacation in LA. Orange County has passport processing in a couple of their county offices. Online reservation system, 2-3 week lead time. I think one of the local library systems was another option, but we didn't investigate it since the county appointment worked fine.