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GUWonder, what you write is not totally correct. 1) US Embassies and consulates used to be able to issue full passports instantly. In recent years this has changed abit. They still can issue full passports, however everything is sent to the US on your behalf. This takes 10-15 days, "There will be no significant changes in the passport application process for American citizens living or traveling abroad. Applications for replacement passports and for first-time passports for children will continue to be accepted and approved at the closest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. However, the new passports will be issued in the U.S., and returned to the original Embassy or Consulate for pick-up. This process is currently expected to take approximately two weeks. Old-style passports will remain valid until their normal expiration date. It is not necessary to replace currently valid passports until shortly before they expire."

Also,"U.S. Embassies and Consulates will continue to issue passports in emergency cases. Such passports will be limited in validity, and cannot be extended. Bearers will be required, however, to exchange their limited validity passports for a full-validity photo-digitized passport upon completion of their emergency travel, either through passport facilities in the U.S. Embassies and Consulates, or passport offices"

Does anyone know if the same can be done with Dutch passports?

whenever i or mrs bickle have requested a 48-page passport, we just write "please issue 48-page passport. thanks." on a yellow post-it note and stick it to the form, no staples, etc. it has always worked.

Standard passports are generally no longer issued by the US embassy or consulates. Our embassies/consulates will take the application and, as you pointed out, have the passport issued from the US itself.

So I don't know how what I wrote "is not totally correct". ;)

That said, thank you for fleshing out the details better.

An emergency passport can be issued in a matter of hours and while they say it is to finish your current travel, is generally valid for a year, Furthermore, unless something has radically changed, it can be extended to full validity when you get home.

As you posted above:

The timing of the exchange to a full-validity, photo-digitized passport is a little more open since the US government doesn't force you physically to show up and/or surrender it upon arrival to the US or to a destination where you can wait for the arrival of a full-validity, photo-digitized passport.

The validity of these limited-validity passports issued for "emergencies" is explicitly noted and is not for the full-term (usually 10 years, with notable exceptions); it's generally far less than even 5 years. ;)

These changes came into effect after 9/11.

No matter what country you come from, passport services are almost always faster, cheaper and more efficient at an embassy/consulate abroad than in the home country.

I carry a thick wad of 4 passport booklets (since I keep running out of pages), each issued by a consulate on a different continent. How's that for variety!!! ;)

Are you saying that you have 120 pages in your passport? (5 * 24)

I just went and got my lettered pages added while in Costa Rica. Took about 90 minutes total. Not fun, but much better than the poor people who paid $100 just to enter in and *attempt* to get a travel visa to the USA.

No, much more.

The standard Indian passport is 36 pages, plus 2 of my booklets are jumbo 60-page booklets and the first booklet has 2 sets of 16 extra pages added on (before India got rid of the extra pages thing).

So totally there are 36*3 + 60*2 + 16*2 = 260 pages. Of those, around 230 are used.

Just wanted to close this thread and confirm what many here have posted... it took three weeks to get my passport back. A relatively painless (and unbelievably cheap!) process.

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

Last year I had about 30 days between trips and sent my passport in for additonal pages via their regular process. When I still had not received it back with only 7 days to my trip, and no returned passport-- I was getting a bit concerned. I called them and was told for $67 they would expedite the process and send it back to me via FedEx. At that point, I really didn't have a choice so went with it. I had my passport (with additional pages) back the next day. This was in April-- when I was told they were not particularily busy :confused:

Funny, I renewed my passport about that time last year, no hurry, no international travel planned, got the new passport back in about 10 days. :rolleyes:

Indonesia is the place that filled me up so fast. $25 for the benefit of losing an entire page from the sticker. I had no empty pages left and had a last minute trip to Jakarta come up. I was nervous that they'd turn me away because only the back page was left (where it says 'amendments'), so I hired a local to usher me through border control. $200k rupes for piece of mind that time.I don't see why they can't just issue a receipt (as with the airport departure tax) and give you a standard ink stamp like they used to. Extort my $25 every time...fine...but don't hog up all my pages.

No, they won't insert extra pages in a Dutch passport. However, you can get a 64-page passport (so called "zakenpaspoort") and you can also get a 2nd passport. I currently have a relatively new zakenpaspoort as well as a new 2nd passport, so 96 visa pages to go!