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 doesnt 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 doesnt match the list above, please add or correct.
Current US passport wait? (Merged Threads)
Apr 30, 2023 | 12:08 pm
#2431
Join Date: May 2009
Location: South Carolina
Posts: 905
Which embassies? Consulates?
Also considering a 2nd passport. That you have to go to a regional office? Then hand over your current one, while the 2nd is being produced? We spent 300 days traveling outside the US last year. And will do the same this year. I think certain jobs qualify ( pilots) and such for a 2nd one. Not sure I would qualify.
Apr 30, 2023 | 1:35 pm
#2432
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,077
Is there a list of which ones? I can plan our travels around doing this, if I knew which ones. Some places we are in for a month at a time.
Also considering a 2nd passport. That you have to go to a regional office? Then hand over your current one, while the 2nd is being produced? We spent 300 days traveling outside the US last year. And will do the same this year. I think certain jobs qualify ( pilots) and such for a 2nd one. Not sure I would qualify.
Also considering a 2nd passport. That you have to go to a regional office? Then hand over your current one, while the 2nd is being produced? We spent 300 days traveling outside the US last year. And will do the same this year. I think certain jobs qualify ( pilots) and such for a 2nd one. Not sure I would qualify.
More and more embassies/consulates have gotten into trying to interrupt this game with language such as this:
Originally Posted by a US embassy website
IMPORTANT: If you are eligible to renew your passport by mail, please utilize this option to avoid visiting the embassy. We will not grant in-person appointments to applicants who are eligible to renew by mail and have the time to do so.
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.
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.
Apr 30, 2023 | 5:02 pm
#2433
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 15,859
Stan1162. You can only carry a second (or even a third passport) with permission of the DoS. 300 days of travel a year on its own does NOT mean anything. You must demonstrate that you have a reason, which has often included;
1) Frequent travel to Israel and any one of a number of Muslim countries....however......certain things over the last decade have made this more difficult, such as the fact that Israel stopped stamping most US passports on arrival, and the fact that fewer Muslim states will deny entry to someone with an Israeli stamp. The big exception being of course that Israel generally does still stamp for land crossings (as opposed to TLV).
2) Evidence that you are traveling to places that require your passport for extended period of times in order to issue a visa. Russia was a great one for this as even in good times, at times it could take weeks to get a Russian visa issued. If you evidenced that you had/have to travel somewhere else while this is being done, then they would issue it. China is another one, but is somewhat of a catch 22, at least before Covid as the more you traveled to China the greater the duration of visa would be, so if you have 10 year China visas, you have no excuse. Also certain central African and Central Asian countries.
3) Certain professions. The entire (US) White House press corps has 2-3 passports each, specifically because they often need journalist visas to many places that take longer to process (or in some cases because they have to go by the letter of the law, they need press visas where regular travelers need none). So they always have a passport or two in process somewhere for visas. Certain types of humanitarian and religious charity workers will have 2. The DoS has a list of many categories that they regularly allow this for.
1) Frequent travel to Israel and any one of a number of Muslim countries....however......certain things over the last decade have made this more difficult, such as the fact that Israel stopped stamping most US passports on arrival, and the fact that fewer Muslim states will deny entry to someone with an Israeli stamp. The big exception being of course that Israel generally does still stamp for land crossings (as opposed to TLV).
2) Evidence that you are traveling to places that require your passport for extended period of times in order to issue a visa. Russia was a great one for this as even in good times, at times it could take weeks to get a Russian visa issued. If you evidenced that you had/have to travel somewhere else while this is being done, then they would issue it. China is another one, but is somewhat of a catch 22, at least before Covid as the more you traveled to China the greater the duration of visa would be, so if you have 10 year China visas, you have no excuse. Also certain central African and Central Asian countries.
3) Certain professions. The entire (US) White House press corps has 2-3 passports each, specifically because they often need journalist visas to many places that take longer to process (or in some cases because they have to go by the letter of the law, they need press visas where regular travelers need none). So they always have a passport or two in process somewhere for visas. Certain types of humanitarian and religious charity workers will have 2. The DoS has a list of many categories that they regularly allow this for.
Apr 30, 2023 | 5:05 pm
#2434
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 15,859
GU, is it that they are trying to stamp out faster turnarounds, or simply that they are trying to encourage anyone from going to the mission for any reason. I tend to find that any specific ACS that makes it diffficult to make an appointment for a passport application in person also makes it difficult to do so for document verification/certification or pretty much anything else as well.
May 1, 2023 | 1:15 am
#2435
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,077
GU, is it that they are trying to stamp out faster turnarounds, or simply that they are trying to encourage anyone from going to the mission for any reason. I tend to find that any specific ACS that makes it diffficult to make an appointment for a passport application in person also makes it difficult to do so for document verification/certification or pretty much anything else as well.
What the government is wanting/trying to do may be one thing, while what it results in may be another. When it comes to wanting the fastest and most reliable passport turnarounds at the lowest cost for my friends and family, I care less about what DC is wanting to do with going in this direction than what the results are for these US passport applications submitted outside of the US.
May 2, 2023 | 2:16 am
#2438
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,077
More than 14 days in advance? Then they may suggest paying up for expedited service first if not having done so already and waiting until within 14 days.
Quite disappointing how even domestic applications with expedited service for a fee are sometimes taking as long as 8-9 weeks while standard domestic processing could be up to 13 weeks.
May 2, 2023 | 6:31 am
#2439
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,960
I contacted my congressman's office about 15-16 days prior to travel and they asked for my proof of travel, so I sent them my e-ticket. Once they submitted it, the passport agency wrote back to them and said my renewal would be moved into the queue for congressional inquiries by date of travel. It seems to have worked. They (congressman's office) emailed me yesterday with a tracking number and I can see via USPS informed delivery that my passport is on its way to me. Whew!
May 2, 2023 | 12:20 pm
#2440
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1MM, Marriott LTP, Hilton Gold, Hyatt Explorist, Hertz PC
Posts: 1,029
Varies by legislators office and passport issue, but only use one office to run the issue.
More than 14 days in advance? Then they may suggest paying up for expedited service first if not having done so already and waiting until within 14 days.
Quite disappointing how even domestic applications with expedited service for a fee are sometimes taking as long as 8-9 weeks while standard domestic processing could be up to 13 weeks.
More than 14 days in advance? Then they may suggest paying up for expedited service first if not having done so already and waiting until within 14 days.
Quite disappointing how even domestic applications with expedited service for a fee are sometimes taking as long as 8-9 weeks while standard domestic processing could be up to 13 weeks.
May 2, 2023 | 1:13 pm
#2441
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,077
Totally agree this is disappointing. I received an email titled "Passport Application Status" this morning. I was overjoyed. But it turns out that the email says that my kid's application has been "in process" since March 13. Really? Back then, the processing time was 5-7 weeks. It has already passed the 7-week mark. Very unfortunate. Our travel is in July but, at this speed, I don't know when we are going to get the passports.
May 2, 2023 | 1:30 pm
#2442
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,960
Good news update - I now have my new passport safely in my hands. It left Tucson at 4:15 am this morning and was delivered to my home in central Florida at 2:30 pm local time.
Good luck, naumank - Mine had been received and in process since 3/9/2023 and was being processed by locator #62 which I've read is one of the slowest. You still have time with a July departure date and hopefully will receive something soon. It is frustrating and stressful, however. Despite signing up for email update, I never received an email from the passport agency as the status changed throughout the process.
Good luck, naumank - Mine had been received and in process since 3/9/2023 and was being processed by locator #62 which I've read is one of the slowest. You still have time with a July departure date and hopefully will receive something soon. It is frustrating and stressful, however. Despite signing up for email update, I never received an email from the passport agency as the status changed throughout the process.
May 2, 2023 | 2:29 pm
#2443
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1MM, Marriott LTP, Hilton Gold, Hyatt Explorist, Hertz PC
Posts: 1,029
Good news update - I now have my new passport safely in my hands. It left Tucson at 4:15 am this morning and was delivered to my home in central Florida at 2:30 pm local time.
Good luck, naumank - Mine had been received and in process since 3/9/2023 and was being processed by locator #62 which I've read is one of the slowest. You still have time with a July departure date and hopefully will receive something soon. It is frustrating and stressful, however. Despite signing up for email update, I never received an email from the passport agency as the status changed throughout the process.
Good luck, naumank - Mine had been received and in process since 3/9/2023 and was being processed by locator #62 which I've read is one of the slowest. You still have time with a July departure date and hopefully will receive something soon. It is frustrating and stressful, however. Despite signing up for email update, I never received an email from the passport agency as the status changed throughout the process.
Last edited by naumank; May 2, 2023 at 2:36 pm
May 2, 2023 | 9:28 pm
#2445
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA 1MM, Marriott LTP, Hilton Gold, Hyatt Explorist, Hertz PC
Posts: 1,029