Mar 1, 2022, 6:35 am
Last edit by: CKDGM
Passport Agency Appointments (same day expedited service)
Appointments for same-day expedited service often go quickly. It is best that you schedule your appointment with the passport agency exactly 14 days before your trip. You will want to call the passport number before the center opens at 8am EST as they will have just opened up one day (14 days out) of appointments at all agencies. Appointment times start at 8am. It is important that you have enough buffer in your travel schedule. For example, if you make an appointment for a new passport at 11am and your time of travel is at 2pm, there will not be enough time for you to get your passport. If you book the 8am slot you may have to wait until the end of the business day to get your new passport or it may only be a few hours.
You will want to have your date of travel, time of travel, your flight itinerary number, name of destination, full name of applicant, and applicant's birth city, and the zip code of where you live (to help them find the closest available center with open slots). Use the following steps to increase your chances of success to booking an appointment as they can go very quickly:
Credit: chgoeditor
Known office locator numbers (not complete)
Note: The office code (first two digits of your application locator number returned by Passport Status) is the office reviewing your documents and approving your application. It isn't necessarily the address you mailed the forms to (always Irving or Philadelphia for renewals) nor the facility where the book is physically printed and mailed (often Tucson or Hot Springs).
10: Boston
11: NYC
12: Honolulu
14: Stamford, CT
15: Portsmouth, NH
17: Aurora, CO
18: Chicago
19: Washington, DC
20-29: Portsmouth, NH
34-39: Charleston
40-42: New Orleans, LA
45: Portsmouth, NH
50: Los Angeles, CA
51: Miami
53: Seattle
54: Minneapolis
55: Dallas
56: Detroit
57: San Francisco
58: Philadelphia, PA
61-64: Tucson
65: Hot Springs, AR
67: San Juan, PR
68: Portsmouth, NH
69: Portsmouth, NH
71: US embassies/consulates abroad (possibly Portsmouth, NH)
74: Atlanta
75: St Albans, VT
76: San Diego, CA
77: Buffalo, NY
78: El Paso, TX
79: Houston, TX
80: Special Issuance Agency ("Issues diplomatic, official, service, and no-fee regular passports, and facilitates visa processing for those traveling on behalf of the U.S. government.")
95: Online
A list of agencies and their locator numbers is listed on this page under the heading, "List of passport agencies and centers with locator numbers."
H/T Nayef, txviking, and various individual posts both here and on Reddit. If you have a locator not in the above list, check the return address agency name or postmark/ZIP on your returned citizenship docs, or passport card if you applied for one, which may be the processing office, although the address itself is likely to be a PO Box in Sterling, VA in all cases (which appears to be a lockbox location that processes mail for all locations). The passport books are printed in fewer locations, often Hot Springs and Tucson, and may not correspond to the agency where the processing steps occurred. If it doesn’t match the list above, please add or correct.
Appointments for same-day expedited service often go quickly. It is best that you schedule your appointment with the passport agency exactly 14 days before your trip. You will want to call the passport number before the center opens at 8am EST as they will have just opened up one day (14 days out) of appointments at all agencies. Appointment times start at 8am. It is important that you have enough buffer in your travel schedule. For example, if you make an appointment for a new passport at 11am and your time of travel is at 2pm, there will not be enough time for you to get your passport. If you book the 8am slot you may have to wait until the end of the business day to get your new passport or it may only be a few hours.
You will want to have your date of travel, time of travel, your flight itinerary number, name of destination, full name of applicant, and applicant's birth city, and the zip code of where you live (to help them find the closest available center with open slots). Use the following steps to increase your chances of success to booking an appointment as they can go very quickly:
- 14 days before your trip, you need to schedule an appointment with the passport agency.
- At 7:55 am call the passport number 877-487-2778 (This have to be exactly 14 days before your plane ticket or less. If less, it will get harder to find an appointment)
- Click 1 (For English)
- Click 2 (New Passport)
- Continue to Click 7 to repeat, and keep doing this while watching your watch or using Time.gov to get the exact time down to the second.
- When your it hits exactly 8:00 am Click 2 (for traveling within 14 days option)
- There will be a delay of 3-4 second and you will wait for the next available agent. If you are very lucky, you will be put straight through to an agent. You may be waiting few minutes or maybe as long as 15-20 minutes.
- If you did not click 1 exactly at 8 am, you may have to wait for more than an hour and half
Credit: chgoeditor
Known office locator numbers (not complete)
Note: The office code (first two digits of your application locator number returned by Passport Status) is the office reviewing your documents and approving your application. It isn't necessarily the address you mailed the forms to (always Irving or Philadelphia for renewals) nor the facility where the book is physically printed and mailed (often Tucson or Hot Springs).
10: Boston
11: NYC
12: Honolulu
14: Stamford, CT
15: Portsmouth, NH
17: Aurora, CO
18: Chicago
19: Washington, DC
20-29: Portsmouth, NH
34-39: Charleston
40-42: New Orleans, LA
45: Portsmouth, NH
50: Los Angeles, CA
51: Miami
53: Seattle
54: Minneapolis
55: Dallas
56: Detroit
57: San Francisco
58: Philadelphia, PA
61-64: Tucson
65: Hot Springs, AR
67: San Juan, PR
68: Portsmouth, NH
69: Portsmouth, NH
71: US embassies/consulates abroad (possibly Portsmouth, NH)
74: Atlanta
75: St Albans, VT
76: San Diego, CA
77: Buffalo, NY
78: El Paso, TX
79: Houston, TX
80: Special Issuance Agency ("Issues diplomatic, official, service, and no-fee regular passports, and facilitates visa processing for those traveling on behalf of the U.S. government.")
95: Online
A list of agencies and their locator numbers is listed on this page under the heading, "List of passport agencies and centers with locator numbers."
H/T Nayef, txviking, and various individual posts both here and on Reddit. If you have a locator not in the above list, check the return address agency name or postmark/ZIP on your returned citizenship docs, or passport card if you applied for one, which may be the processing office, although the address itself is likely to be a PO Box in Sterling, VA in all cases (which appears to be a lockbox location that processes mail for all locations). The passport books are printed in fewer locations, often Hot Springs and Tucson, and may not correspond to the agency where the processing steps occurred. If it doesn’t match the list above, please add or correct.
Current US passport wait? (Merged Threads)
Aug 24, 2018, 8:56 pm
#227
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: NYC
Programs: AA 2MM, Bonvoy LTT, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 14,635
Aug 31, 2018, 8:57 am
#229
Join Date: Jan 2018
Programs: UA, LH, BA
Posts: 294
The <a href="https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=621bfca60 e057000c96e2d044acb474c&tab=core&_cview=1" >RFP</a> calls for two high capacity printer and about 2 dozen low capacity printers to be installed at various passport agencies. The output from the lower capacity printer should be indistinguishable from that of the high capacity printers. I don't believe production of passport is really funded thru tax but rather it is funded thru <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-01-31/pdf/2018-01809.pdf">fees collected</a>.
I didn't even know that they could print passports on-site unti I got my last passport. I booked an appointment and went to the DC passport agency. I was expecing to make a 2nd trip a couple of days later to pick it up. I showed up at 10AM.... the lady told me to go have lunch and come back.
When I came back, they handed me my documents and my new passport! It only took them about 4 hours.
The strange thing was that they didn't even ask if I had an emergency or last-minute trip. I assumed that as long as I paid the extra expedite fee, they didn't reall care...
The only downside was that I ended up parking longer than I expected at the nearby garage and ended up paying almost $40 for parking. (plus the $25 lunch that I had at a restaurnt two blocks away)
But I guess that was better than having to make the 2nd trip.
Sep 7, 2018, 2:43 am
#230
Join Date: Mar 2015
Programs: UA
Posts: 114
On my visit to the agency in San Francisco i also had the impression as if it was running under capacity. I guess it is quite difficult to define the rules so that they run well at capacity but not above it so as to guarantee short turnaround times for those cases that really need it. Or maybe for most people convenience of never having to go to an agency outweights the time for normal processing, Who knows.
Sep 13, 2018, 5:51 pm
#231
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 10
Standard passport book renewal:
Mailed Priority: August 24th (was told it would arrive at passport office Aug 27th)
Rec'd notice passport was completed: September 11th
USPS stated it would make it to my house (from Arizona to New York) ---September 15th
Total time door to door? 3 weeks 1 day.
Mailed Priority: August 24th (was told it would arrive at passport office Aug 27th)
Rec'd notice passport was completed: September 11th
USPS stated it would make it to my house (from Arizona to New York) ---September 15th
Total time door to door? 3 weeks 1 day.
Sep 18, 2018, 12:36 am
#232
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: New England
Programs: American Gold, Marriott Gold, Hilton Silver
Posts: 5,637
Standard passport book application for new passport (due to my previous passport being expired and lost; within 5 months, so not that old). Standard processing.
Submitted at Acceptance Center (USPS): September 5
Check cashed by Dept of State: September 11
Issue date on Passport: September 13
Date received: September 18
Total time: 13 days (11 business days).
Submitted at Acceptance Center (USPS): September 5
Check cashed by Dept of State: September 11
Issue date on Passport: September 13
Date received: September 18
Total time: 13 days (11 business days).
Last edited by diburning; Sep 18, 2018 at 9:26 pm
Sep 18, 2018, 9:45 am
#233
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: California
Posts: 1
Hi all.
I submitted my application regular service on 9/12 from Palm Springs, Ca.
I do not even know if the application was sent normal mail or expedited. But I am assuming the package went out on 9/13.
I received an email today with a passport application locator number.
Does this mean the passport application was received and given this tracking # or is this tracking # for future
use?
I submitted my application regular service on 9/12 from Palm Springs, Ca.
I do not even know if the application was sent normal mail or expedited. But I am assuming the package went out on 9/13.
I received an email today with a passport application locator number.
Does this mean the passport application was received and given this tracking # or is this tracking # for future
use?
Sep 19, 2018, 2:43 am
#235
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
The current US passport wait times for (non-expedited) applications made in the US look way better now than several years ago. Would any here say the same thing for applications made outside of the US for US passports?
Sep 29, 2018, 1:18 pm
#236
Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,746
Sent in via US Mail First Class Parcel on 9/14/18, received by Passport Office on 9/16/18.
Mailed by Passport Office back to me on 9/27/18, received by me on 9/29/18.
Not bad, 15 (calendar, not business) days from time I sent application to the time I received the passport back in the mail.
Mailed by Passport Office back to me on 9/27/18, received by me on 9/29/18.
Not bad, 15 (calendar, not business) days from time I sent application to the time I received the passport back in the mail.
Oct 2, 2018, 5:36 pm
#237
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: NYC
Programs: Delta Gold, Marriott Platinum, Former Amtrak Select, Former Hilton Gold
Posts: 422
Expedited Renewal:
9/17 Mailed via Priority Mail
9/19 Received in Philadelphia PA
9/25 Notified Photo was not acceptable
9/26 Mailed new photo via Priority Mail
9/28 Received in Portsmouth, NH
10/2 Notified passport being shipped Express Mail for delivery to me 10/3
16 calendar days door-to-door with the 3 day photo delay included.
My photo was deemed "not recent enough" I assume because I was wearing the same shirt as the one in a visa pasted in the old one ~7 months ago
9/17 Mailed via Priority Mail
9/19 Received in Philadelphia PA
9/25 Notified Photo was not acceptable
9/26 Mailed new photo via Priority Mail
9/28 Received in Portsmouth, NH
10/2 Notified passport being shipped Express Mail for delivery to me 10/3
16 calendar days door-to-door with the 3 day photo delay included.
My photo was deemed "not recent enough" I assume because I was wearing the same shirt as the one in a visa pasted in the old one ~7 months ago
Oct 30, 2018, 3:24 am
#238
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 77
Standard passport book without social security number. Typed up a statement that our infant didn't have a social security number. Wife and me signed and attached to passport form.
10/14/2018 Baby born
10/18/2018 Birth Certificate issued
10/19/2018 Birth Certificate picked up @ SNHD
10/19/2018 Appiled for standard passport book @ SNHD
10/23/2018 Shows processing
11/01/2018 Passport has been printed and will be shipped out from AR
11/03/2018 Deleveried in NV
10/14/2018 Baby born
10/18/2018 Birth Certificate issued
10/19/2018 Birth Certificate picked up @ SNHD
10/19/2018 Appiled for standard passport book @ SNHD
10/23/2018 Shows processing
11/01/2018 Passport has been printed and will be shipped out from AR
11/03/2018 Deleveried in NV
Last edited by dnLwire; Dec 4, 2018 at 2:10 am
Nov 6, 2018, 5:09 am
#240
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
I asked around elsewhere. With places with a non-stop flight to the US, it’s like a 9-14 calendar day turn for those applying and picking up at US embassies/consulates.