extra passport pages - twice?
 

i have had pages added to my passport once - now need them again. it's unclear from passport office web site if you can do this twice. it mentions page addition, then a "special 48 page passport for those who travel" alot. has anyone had extra pages added twice?

I'm on my third amendment...and I know I've seen thicker passports in the immigration lines...

i've seen passports where people bind them with rubberbands due to all the extra additions... don't worry.. they'll do it for ya..

I am currently traveling with 5 simultaneously valid passports that have all run out of pages. I have 3 pages left on my most recent passport and expect to be done with that too by the end of the month.

The US is one of the only countries who continues to add additional pages to passports rather than issue new booklets. This is ironic because US Immigration will no longer accept passports with additional pages added on from foreign nationals.

The only rule is that every addition has to be taped to original pages on both sides. Something will break before you run up against that limit.

I'm on my sixth currently.

On a related note, how long is it currently taking to get the pages added?
My passport still has four or five blank pages, but it has four years of validity left, and I know I'll need the extra pages sooner or later.

And yes, I already have the form DS-19, obtainable from this web page: http://travel.state.gov/passport/for.../ds19_844.html

The .pdf file has the very handy feature that you can fill in the form online and then print it (though not save the changes to disk, unless you have Adobe Acrobat rather than just Adobe Reader). ^

In any case, if I mail my passport and the DS-19 to the Charleston Passport Center, approximately how long will it take these days?

Someone recommended to me to just go to the US Embassy the next time I was traveling in a foreign country and have them done there. BingoSF and I decided to do that last year in Singapore as we were both running out of pages (and I had seven years to go on mine). Took all of about 20 minutes and was an interesting experience to boot.

Kathy, I thought you read FT more than that!! Never do the pages in the US....It takes days or weeks...... and you PAY FOR THEM.

At an embassy/consulate abroad it takes 20 minutes MAX (Personally I've done it in less than 5) and its free.

False. There is NO CHARGE. See page two of the DS-19 where it says, "There is no fee to have a U.S. passport amended:"

http://travel.state.gov/pdf/DS-0019.pdf

Of course, it will cost you something to mail the passport (but no doubt it also costs cab or bus fare to go to a U.S. Embassy abroad :p ). And if you do want Expedited Service, that is $60.

When I am traveling, I may have better things to do than search out the U.S. Embassy. However, I will keep this option in mind. @:-)

Still waiting for an answer from someone who has mailed their passport to Charleston (and did NOT pay the $60 expedite fee)....

I sent mine in to have pages added about six weeks ago. It came back about 2 and a half weeks later. I did not pay for expedited service. I sent it Priority Mail and also included a self-addressed pre-paid Priority Mail envelope for them to return it in, but they returned the envelope unused. My husband sent his in a week after me and it took the same amount of time.

Just a general FYI: the Consular Section of the US Embassy in Paris will now only do these amendments by mail unless you have proof of "imminent departure" (travel tickets).

thanks for the info. I sent mine in last Monday to the Charleston center. I hope it only takes 3 weeks for mine to be returned. I was down to two blank pages and decided to just mail it in because on my last 3 trips I had every intention of making it to the Embassy but that just didn't happen!

With several weeks between foreign trips we mailed in our passports for the extra pages. Several weeks later, and just before our next overseas trip, I called the 800 number. Very efficiently the clerk looked it up and said that our passports were "being held" in Charleston and that it would be six weeks before they were mailed back. I also hold a Canadian passport but Mrs. Fredd doesn't so it a moment of panic ensued - we were about to set off for a non-cancellable one month on a Turkish yacht sailing around the Aegean and Mediterranean.

At that moment, thank goodness, the clerk told me that I could pay over the phone with a credit card for expedited service. We did and we had the passports in hand three days later. Even though we had sent them in together they were shipped back separately so my credit card was charged for both little Fedex envelopes that arrived together, a further little ding to the wallet.

Obviously from what I read here others have gotten the pages added within a couple of weeks, but from my experience I strongly urge you not to rely on that. If I wanted to be snide, I'd compare it to what the Turks and others call baksheesh, but perish the thought. :rolleyes:

Cheers,
Fredd

Everything I do is "expedited", I am travelling somewhere on average every week or two internationally, every week or two for the last 15 years or so, therefore "normal" service is not an option for me and almost everyone I have ever encountered that needs new pages needs them for an upcoming trip, therefore anything more than a day or two is a LONG time and $60 is therefore the "standard" charge (at least in my world). Paris is unique in this regard as it is the first I have heard of with the above restriction.