Originally Posted by DeltaRIC
A quicker way would be to do it at a passport office in some major cites. I was going to do this last summer up in Washington D.C. We went to the post office to get more details. We wanted to do this because we wanted to go to London in August. The post-man then said it would be and extra 100 or so dollars to get it done in one day. Of course, Mom said no right away to that. Long story short, we ended up mailing it off sometime in September to get it renewed. Never got to go to London either. It came about 5 weeks later and I didn't ask for it to be expedited to like 4 weeks instead. I got to go to London that November.
Actually, there is a passport office in Philadelphia on Chestnut Street. I had planned to go there and renew the passport in person. However, in order to go to the agency in person, you must make an appointment. but in order to make an appointment, you must produce a ticket showing that you are leaving the country in two weeks or less. If you cannot, then you cannot have an appointment at the agency. I had neither a ticket nor a visa, so I could not go.
I believe this is a change in policy, as I do know people who have been able to go in person in the past.