To answer your question: yes, it is allowed. There is no requirement to be a legal resident local to the US Embassy in Denmark in order to make a regular US passport application appointment and use it to get a passport. Even a US-residing or Sweden-residing American visiting Denmark can make an appointment online and use an expiring US passport to get a new full duration regular US passport issued for in-person pick-up in Denmark.

Question for all: Has anyone submitted a regular Passport renewal which is currently taking 10-13 weeks and called the 877 number to request if it can be upgraded to Expedite? I was told this could be done and my spouse called and spoke to an Agent who said to email them with the reference number and credit card details and it will be processed. This was 2 weeks ago and still no charge to my card or any update online. Just wondering if anyone has tried this and if it was successful.

I read on Reddit that several folks called to upgrade but their cards haven't been charged.

That sounds really dodgy!

Taking your idea one step further, I wonder if a US-based US citizen can just mail their renewal application to a foreign US embassy/consulate and get it back by mail. Akin to calling a US airline's foreign office amid a massive disruption and long wait times.

No direct experience, but when I called the 877# this morning, one of the voicemail options was for individuals who had submitted an application and wished to upgrade to expedited service. This wasn't my requirement, so I don't know what happens if you select that option. There is a Facebook page called "U.S. Passport Waiting Times" where people are posting their experiences, and I thought I read some reports there of people calling to upgrade to expedited service and got the impression their information was taken by the agent over the phone, i.e. they were not directed to email it in.

I shall remember this in 9 1/2 years when I next need to renew. :D It's good to know for my husband when his U.S. passport is due for renewal in two years. His Danish passport is due next year and we're going to try to have it renewed this year.

My guess is that they would only be willing to return it by mail to a local address, not return it to a U.S. address. But this could still be an option if one has family at the foreign destination as we do, and can have it delivered to them. OTOH, I do hope that the issues with long wait times this year is an anomaly and this isn't the norm for passport issuance in the U.S.

With postage prepaid, the US Embassy in Copenhagen will send it via mail of sort to addresses in at least Denmark and in Sweden. But mail/courier introduces more variability and risk than an in-person pickup. When it comes to unaccompanied passports being sent across borders, there is another chance for a hiccup and why even for the Swedish addresses for applications submitted in Denmark I prefer to have the passports picked up in-person.

The regulation is that the embassy/consulates can only hold the newly-issued passport/passport card for 90 days, or the passport/passport card gets returned to the US. And for those who tend to apply for a passport and passport card at the same time, the embassy/consulate will typically get the passports back at a different/earlier time than the passport card. Just somethings to keep in mind.

1. AFAIK, you must apply in person at a mission abroad to get a passport issued, it cannot be done by mail.
2. Some missions do not want people picking up their passports or cards when they come in and have courier arrangements. They will generally only allow to be sent in that country or consular area.
3. Personal experiences/knowledge of last few weeks. I knew someone traveling from LA to Europe, who went the Emergency route, got an emergency appointment next day in LA, and had their passport 4 hours later.
3. GU's assessment of 8 day average in EU is spot on and has as much to do when "pouches" go out as anything else (i.e. if the US Embassy in Brussels gets its pouch sent on Tuesdays and your application is in the system on Monday, you might very well have it back in Brussels on Thursday or Friday, if it goes in on Tuesday and misses the cut off time, it may not get back to the Embassy until the next Tuesday, and sent to you on Wednesday or Thursday.)

The US embassies/consulates refer to adult passport application renewals by mail as the renewal-by-mail program. It is open and operational in some but not all places. It is open in the two embassies closest to me next week: Denmark and Sweden.

Here is what the US embassy in Stockholm says:

https://se.usembassy.gov/renew-a-passport/

The language in the above says this:

“IMPORTANT: Include a return address on BOTH the mailing and self-addressed envelope! All envelopes without a return address will be rejected. Be advised that the addressee must present a valid Swedish ID to retrieve registered mail from the designated local delivery location.”

But that language is far from being entirely accurate in practice in my experience. Non-Swedish passports are in practice also accepted as ID by those designated local delivery locations for pick up.

Re: #1 - unless it has changed, renewal was permitted by mail via the US embassy in Denmark when I lived there. As GU states, a prepaid self-addressed envelope is/was required. I'm sure new applications must be done in person, and I recall going in person when I needed to do a name change.

Re: #4, absolutely correct on the timing of pouches. My last renewal in 2013 was in my hands less than a week after I dropped the application in the post - no in-person visit required.

Re: #3, if one can get an appointment at a location where passports are issued on the spot, this is an option. When I spoke with the agent yesterday, there were no appointments available between now and my planned departure in Miami, my closest location, which is a 4-5 hour drive one way. Walk-ins not permitted. In the article written on April 14 referred up thread (post #2400) by Nick at Frequent Miler, he was unable to get an appt in his state or anywhere close by and the only appointments offered were El Paso or Puerto Rico. So while it is possible in theory to get an emergency passport issued, in reality it is a challenge.

Hindsight is great but when I sent off my application together with my old passport in the first week of March and paid for expedited service, it stated that the timeline was 5-7 weeks. Even if mine took the full 7 weeks, I would have still been two weeks away from travel. Three weeks after I applied, the timeline changed from 7-9 weeks, but those in process earlier were supposed to still follow the original 5-7 weeks. Had I even imagined this would be an issue, I would have made different (better) decisions months earlier - like renewing as soon as I returned from my last international trip in October.

I have no idea what the Specific US Embassy in Denmark (or Sweden)guidelines are, I defer to GU on that one, as I know that there are some missions abroad that no longer accept mail in's, but others may. I would suggest that anyone wanting to do so, inquires of the mission that they are planning to do it at. Looking at the Sweden link above there do seem to be a few caveats though (that it is not your first adult passport, etc)

First adult passport exclusion is based on having to do DS-11. DS-11s have to be done in-person. For DS-82 eligible applicants, it can be done by mail. US nationals become eligible for DS-82s if they’ve already done a DS-11 after they are 16 years of age. Are there 16 and 17 year olds eligible for DS-82s? Yes, some (but not most); and some such DS-82 eligible teenagers and young adults reapply just because they or their parents don’t like their passport issue or expiration dates or the photo they submitted. [There is no prohibition on applying for a renewal passport even 9 years before expiration date on a 10-year full duration passport.]

SusanDK,

Renewal by mail is still around at the embassy in Denmark:

https://dk.usembassy.gov/renew-an-adult-passport/

tl;dr do not come to the Netherlands (or Belgium) expecting to renew your US passport while on holiday.

The US consular presence in the Netherlands would like you to believe that regular adult passport renewals (DS-82) are in fact ONLY available by mail.

No page on https://nl.usembassy.gov describes the process for an in-person DS-82 renewal. It has gone down the memory hole. (The Brussels embassy seems to have also recently (well, since last year) scrubbed their website of information about in-person regular passport renewals and pick-ups as well.)

I am pretty sure one can still apply in person with a DS-82 if you make an appointment at the Amsterdam consulate, and come prepared with everything you need - but they expressly do not tell you how.

NB - even when you *do* go in person (as I did with my kids' most recent renewals, since those cannot be done by mail), you will still be forced to surrender the current passports and have the new passports delivered by mail unless the vice-consul takes pity on you for truly exigent circumstances; i.e. you have to bring self-addressed, postage-paid return mailers (DHL or PostNL only). Enjoy temporary de-facto statelessness!

The reason given is "the Amsterdam consulate is too small to meet demand for in-person appointments and pick-ups." I guess I don't disagree given that something like 3100 appointments per year (12 per business day, excluding holidays) are actually made available to serve the ~35000 US citizens who live in the Netherlands. But it's shameful that the State Department just built a gigantic new US embassy complex built in Wassenaar which.... offers zero in-person consular or US citizen services.

In the grand scheme of things, this isn't the worst example of the diminished state capacity of the USA - but as an American living abroad regularly dealing with this clownshow, it's certainly one that hits close to home.

Updating what's happened so far -- my status page changed from "not available" to "shipped" overnight. Ever amazing.