Superfast US passport renewal - 11 days regular
Jan 15, 2012, 7:41 am
#1
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Superfast US passport renewal - 11 days regular
My daughter is under 16, so her renewal comes up more often (5yrs). We are traveling in mid-Feb and the State Department says 4-6 week turnaround (like it pretty much always says). But I figure this is just past peak time, all the holiday travel is done, and most people did their renewals in the spring/summer, so we roll the dice - we don't expedite, we don't go to the Norwalk office with a ticket like last time.
And...
Passport to post office at 4pm on January 3, new passport arrives in the mail at 11am on January 14. Wow! Regular service in less than 11 days! I'm floored at how quickly our government can work.
But I guess this is the perfect storm. January 3 was the first day the post office was open this year, the first day after the holidays when everyone was traveling, and there must have been no backlog over the holidays.
Cheers,
daloosh
And...
Passport to post office at 4pm on January 3, new passport arrives in the mail at 11am on January 14. Wow! Regular service in less than 11 days! I'm floored at how quickly our government can work.
But I guess this is the perfect storm. January 3 was the first day the post office was open this year, the first day after the holidays when everyone was traveling, and there must have been no backlog over the holidays.
Cheers,
daloosh
Jan 15, 2012, 9:57 am
#2
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Great experience. If your daughter's application listed upcoming travel in February, could that have been a key to getting fast service via the regular channels?
We sent our renewals in a few days ago to Philadelphia with no upcoming travel dates listed, so we'll see how that goes.
We sent our renewals in a few days ago to Philadelphia with no upcoming travel dates listed, so we'll see how that goes.
Jan 15, 2012, 12:23 pm
#4
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The last couple of renewals we've put through from our household have come back within two weeks regardless of time of year. Very efficient.
Jan 17, 2012, 1:52 pm
#7
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I had a similar experience at the end of '09, when I sent my passport in to have pages added. I sent it by certified mail to the Philadelphia address and opted for standard (i.e., free) processing - the passport made it back to me within two weeks.
Jan 17, 2012, 9:32 pm
#10
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Seriously? Here in Norway, you go to a Police stadion, do the application, take a picture and fingerprints, and you receive it within 10 days - usually much quicker. I think I had my last passport in the mail after two. If you haven't received it within 10 days, you mest report it lost.
Jan 18, 2012, 7:31 am
#12
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Seriously? Here in Norway, you go to a Police stadion, do the application, take a picture and fingerprints, and you receive it within 10 days - usually much quicker. I think I had my last passport in the mail after two. If you haven't received it within 10 days, you mest report it lost.
Jan 19, 2012, 6:32 am
#13
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Her passport card came back on Tues. January 17, after the MLK holiday, in a separate mailing. In fact, the three parts (passport, passport card, old passport) are all coming in separate mailings, and the original passport hasn't arrived yet.
It may not have helped, but the Post Office person suggested we put in our February travel date. We didn't get my daughter any extra pages (which you still can request) because her passport will renew again in five years, she'll still be under 16.
Wow, that Norway turnaround is fast, here 11 days seems miraculous to me!
daloosh
It may not have helped, but the Post Office person suggested we put in our February travel date. We didn't get my daughter any extra pages (which you still can request) because her passport will renew again in five years, she'll still be under 16.
Wow, that Norway turnaround is fast, here 11 days seems miraculous to me!
daloosh
Jan 29, 2012, 9:45 pm
#14
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Jan 29, 2012, 11:21 pm
#15
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So the passport came 11 days after submission, the passport card 14 days (after a holiday weekend) and the original passport came at 15 days. All in all, a quite good run, with no losses.
Interestingly, the instructions for our daughter's passport asked we bring documentation that she was our daughter, in the form of a birth certificate listing the parents. We expected that they would keep the birth certificate, as well as the old passport, with the submission -- to be returned later. However, the P.O. person made a copy of the birth certificate and gave us back the original. She submitted the copy with the old passport, and in the return, we rec'd the old passport and the copy of the birth certificate. Don't get it.
daloosh