I applied for an expedited passport at a post office in Columbus, Ohio on June 4th. The dates inside my passport say it was approved on June 12th and it was delivered on June 20th.

Know that the postal carrier will not leave a new passport without a signature. I had to track mine down at a postal sorting center because I was at work and missed two straight days of delivery attempts.

You must have requested delivery by Express Mail. Usual delivery is via Priority Mail, which does not require a signature.

I hate to say it, but if you've waited months for your passport and you still don't have it, DON'T wait for the last weeks. You need to lie. Seriously -- it's not worth the aggrevation going "down to the wire." Tell your Congressman's office that you're leaving 10 days before you really are. I'd do the same thing on my original application, too. Look, it's not your fault the system is all screwed up. There's no reason to endure the "pain and suffering" of going down to the last few days -- when heroic efforts may be necessary. Bottomline is that if "the game" is screwed up, do what you need to do to get your passport with a minimum amount of hassle and nail-bitting.

Lying about your departure date won't work if you have to go to the regional office. Have heard many reports of the offices now requiring you show flight plans to prove your departure date. It MIGHT work for the congressman route, but I dunno about that, they may call the facility and the facility can check your stated departure date vs. the one on your application.

Well, FWIW, back when I applied I thought we were going around Aug. 25 which is what I put on the passport application. We later moved our trip back to Sept. 21. But my passport app says Aug. 25 (I checked on the PDF form that I filled out). Now, fudging dates still won't work if it comes down to having to go up to the regional office in DC (4.5 hrs). So I may call my congressman's office again (or senator) using the Aug. 25 date.

Update: I went ahead and called one of my Senators offices. Gave them the Aug. 25 date for travel and they are going to submit the expedite. The guy on the phone said it is taking 5-10 days for them to get responses from their liason!! Hmm... So we will see what happens.

Well from what I understand as long as you have proof the date is the 21st it wouldn't matter you still have proof. I'm just saying lying about it might not work.

Update: They called me back and have expedited with the New Hampshire agency and it will be Fed-Ex shipped to me by Monday or Tuesday of next week at the latest since it has taken so long. If I do not receive it next week I am to call my Senator's office back.

Now let's just hope it is right! No typo's, etc.!

Maybe not the best way to have gone about it but I have patiently waited (now week 14, not 10-12) and my application did state a travel date of Aug. 25 because we did almost book those dates.

I did the same today, I called and told them I had a leave date of the 13th (instead of the 22nd like it actually is). The guy I spoke with ended up being someone from my hometown that I graduated with and was friends with in HS (Small world :P) and he said that he would do his best to see that it was finished soon, and reported that it was near finished anyways.

So hopefully he wasn't lying to me and I'll have my passport next week, else I'm doing the same as you did :)

Thank you Senator. Just got an email from the state dept. Your passport has finished processing and is being shipped to you. Expect delivery by 08/02/07. Yes!!!

I got my passport renewed this past week. After getting the form and handing it into the post office it took 9 days. Dam quick if you ask me.

Pity they could make the picture any better on the passport photo. :rolleyes:

I'm with you on the photo. I swear my face looks a lot more pink/red than it did in the original.

Yep...it actually arrived today. 1 day turnaround from calling my Senator...which was yesterday. It shipped same day.

Well, Mrs. Cholula are into our 14th week waiting for our passport renewals and, after reading this thread, called our US Congressman's office today. We're three weeks from a trip to Argentina.

They were very helpful and asked for our locator numbers, etc. and said we should receive our passports very soon. They seem to have someone buried in the bowels of the passport office who can expedite this stuff.

I would have originally paid for the expedited service but I believed the State Dept's 10-12 week estimate. My bad I guess. :(

Anyway, thanks to those here who suggested contacting a Congressman or Senator to grease the wheels a bit. I wouldn't have thought of it.

Good luck Cholula! Hopefully your experience will be like mine and you will have your passport in a day or two! I can't complain about a next day delivery. If it is worth anything, my locator number started with 222 which apparently means it was processed in New Hampshire.

Thanks!

Ours starts with 223 so I'm not sure where that's processed.

That may well be New Hampshire too. Found this informaton on locator numbers:

From: http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirl...sporttips.html with lots of other info and tips

Here is what previous commenters have been able to identify with respect to locator numbers which I understand are still very much in use. Please note: if you are given an eight digit number that begins with a 0, like 029 or 030, just drop the zero to locate the appropriate passport agency. These numbers just cannot be used to access your personal information via the webpage

August 1, 2007 Note: when matching your locator number with the location of the passport agency where it is being processed count the number of digits. If it is 8, rather than 9 digits long, put a 0 at the beginning. Therefore, an 8 digit number that begins with 18. . . means the passport agency is Washington, DC (01 . . .)

01 – Washington, DC Passport Agency
02 – Chicago Passport Agency
03 & 50 – Los Angeles Passport
04 – Miami Passport Agency
05 – San Francisco Passport Agency
06 & 11 – New York Passport Agency
07 – Seattle, Washington Passport Agency
08 & 40 – New Orleans Passport Agency
09 – Philadelphia Passport Agency
10 – Boston Passport Agency
12 – Honolulu Passport Agency
13 – Houston Passport Agency
14 – Connecticut Passport Agency
17 – Colorado Passport Agency
15, 20, 21 & 22 – National Passport Center (New Hampshire)
30 & 31 – Charleston, South Carolina Passport Center