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.
The post was about Passport Agencies, not about USPS facilities. These are the locations of PA's:
https://travel.state.gov/content/pas.../agencies.html
A Passport Agency is a State Department office. It can issue a passport on the spot. As others note, if you show up with your paperwork, photos, and people necessary to the process before opening time, you may well have your passport a few hours later and at worst, in the early afternoon.
This approach is supposed to be for emergencies only and only by appointment through the hotline required. But, the practicality is that if you are low maintenance and have everything in order, this may work. You will pay the expedite fees, but those may not be so high once you consider the time wasted on the in-person USPS process.
This process is also useful for people who may have out-of-the-ordinary situations, including secondary documents which are acceptable but not common.
The worst you get is a "no" and then you are stuck with the USPS mail/in-person process.