A friend of mine lost her passport the night before she was to leave.

She called and was instructed to be at the Chicago Passport Center at 8:00. I went with her...we had to wait in lines...fill out a ton of paperwork...

In the end, we picked up her new passport at 2 PM and headed to the airport at 3 PM.

Cost about $200 to get it done so fast.

On another occasion, I got pages added to my passport this way for similar reasons to what is described above. Cost the same as an expedite passport growth by mail and they require you to be departing in less than two weeks from your in person transaction. You drop in the morning and pick up in the afternoon.

This can only be done at major centers - Chicago is one of a few.

There was an automated number to make my appointment....the first availalbe appointment time was in 7 days and I was leaving in 10 days!