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Current US passport wait? (Merged Threads)

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Old Mar 1, 2022, 6:35 am
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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:
  1. 14 days before your trip, you need to schedule an appointment with the passport agency.
  2. 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)
  3. Click 1 (For English)
  4. Click 2 (New Passport)
  5. 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.
  6. When your it hits exactly 8:00 am Click 2 (for traveling within 14 days option)
  7. 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.
  8. If you did not click 1 exactly at 8 am, you may have to wait for more than an hour and half
After the appointment slot has been reserved you will be provided with a unique identifier code and reservation number. These details will also be emailed to you.

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.
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Current US passport wait? (Merged Threads)

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Old Dec 1, 2023 | 10:27 am
  #2686  
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Is there a thread on Urgent Travel passports? Curious about others experiences. Thanks.
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Old Dec 1, 2023 | 10:54 am
  #2687  
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Originally Posted by david55
Is there a thread on Urgent Travel passports? Curious about others experiences. Thanks.
There is no separate thread; there are numerous datapoints in this thread.
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Old Dec 1, 2023 | 1:11 pm
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Originally Posted by Larrude
We also received service 2 weeks - regular service, no travel plans.

I was surprised that our old passports, with the hole punched in them, were not returned as they have always been. Is this a change, or will they come under seperate cover?
I recall mine did come back on separate cover, maybe a month or so later.
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Old Dec 1, 2023 | 4:48 pm
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They arrived today, 7 days later, by 1st class mail.
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Old Dec 8, 2023 | 3:07 pm
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We received a renewal with a name change in 2 weeks. Regular service.
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Old Dec 14, 2023 | 10:49 am
  #2691  
 
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Fast Service (Expedited)
Nov. 30. Mailed application for passport book only. Express one day.
Dec. 2. Delivered Passport Office Philadelphia.
Dec. 5. Check cashed.
Dec, 13. New passport received, Priority Mail Express.
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Old Dec 20, 2023 | 11:48 pm
  #2692  
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State Department just posted a further improvement in expected passport processing times -- they say this is now "pre-pandemic" and has been getting better every couple months with these updates:
Routine 6 to 8 weeks
Expedited 2 to 3 weeks
https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...ing-times.html
I'll be hoping this holds and also the reports of others on even routine service ($130) applications being fulfilled in just weeks, when I send mine in before the end of the month.
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Old Dec 28, 2023 | 9:43 am
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I chose the expedited service for my passport renewal. A total of ten days from sending the application via priority mail to receiving my new passport via priority mail express.
December 4: Mailed application for passport book and card, USPS priority mail
December 8: Check cashed
December 14: New passport received via USPS Priority Mail Express
December 19: New passport card received
December 26: Old passport received
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Old Dec 28, 2023 | 11:52 pm
  #2694  
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By the way, why does the old passport you submitted get sent so separately and delayed? And why are there so many passport processing locations?

Is it that certain offices only intake the information (and later return the submitted materials to you), while a few others actually put the books together? Does this produce more efficient handling?
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Old Dec 29, 2023 | 3:13 pm
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Originally Posted by TA
By the way, why does the old passport you submitted get sent so separately and delayed? And why are there so many passport processing locations?

Is it that certain offices only intake the information (and later return the submitted materials to you), while a few others actually put the books together? Does this produce more efficient handling?
Yes, it is mostly for efficiency that different offices handle different parts of the process (receiving the old pp, sending out the new pp, etc). Why so many offices? Well, they process on the order of 22,000,000 applications per year. Almost 2,000,000 per month. That would be one huge center if all were done at one place. So they have many regional centers to smooth out the load and reduce postal delivery times. Also for security - if something happens at one location (fire, tornado, physical plant / maintenance issues, etc) processing can continue - dont put all your eggs in one basket, yes?

The expired passport gets scanned into electronic storage - so it needs separate processing/handling completely different from that needed to produce a new book.
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Old Dec 30, 2023 | 1:56 pm
  #2696  
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Expedited Renewal, standard return shipping

December 19: Mailed application for passport book and card, USPS priority mail
December 21: USPS Delivered to PO Box
December 26: Application showed in online system
December 28: Application Approved
December 29: Passport Shipped
December 30: Passport Received via Priority Mail

Locator: 42 (New Orleans)

11 days door to door including a federal holiday... nottt bad
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Old Dec 31, 2023 | 4:12 am
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Originally Posted by Section 107
Yes, it is mostly for efficiency that different offices handle different parts of the process (receiving the old pp, sending out the new pp, etc). Why so many offices? Well, they process on the order of 22,000,000 applications per year. Almost 2,000,000 per month. That would be one huge center if all were done at one place. So they have many regional centers to smooth out the load and reduce postal delivery times. Also for security - if something happens at one location (fire, tornado, physical plant / maintenance issues, etc) processing can continue - dont put all your eggs in one basket, yes?

The expired passport gets scanned into electronic storage - so it needs separate processing/handling completely different from that needed to produce a new book.
(Bolding mine)

Yes, the natural (or other) disaster concern is well-founded. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded the New Orleans processing center (which at the time processed about 17% of passport applications). The applications and documents were, fortunately, recovered, but delays in processing occurred, and new (i.e., post-Katrina) applications had to be re-routed to other offices.
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Old Jan 5, 2024 | 3:42 am
  #2698  
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Will update this as it continues, but hopefully seems like things are moving quickly!

Summary: regular / routine service passport renewal application, 3 weeks from mailing in to receiving new passport back --
  • Fri Dec 29 application sent by priority mail envelope from CA to Irving TX
  • Tue Jan 2 USPS reports mail delivered (note holiday weekend)
  • Wed Jan 3 received in status system with email notification
  • Thu Jan 4 check is deposited/posted according to bank account
  • Thu Jan 18 application approved (email 10pm), and 2 hours later, email: shipped (shows Tucson as origin)
  • Mon Jan 22 passport delivered by priority mail; received email notification that supporting documents mailed.
  • Mon Jan 29 received old passport back
I tried to time my application for when I would not be traveling for at least 1-2 months, and when I thought would be a slow time for people applying for renewals given the holiday season, before people's travel plans and realization starts increasing in the new year.

Btw, not sure where people are finding the "location code" that tells them what office produced the passport? None of the communications to me contained such info.
Edit: application # / locator 45 -- this does not seem to correspond to any of the listed locations in the wiki. Returned passport came in envelope with return address Sterling, VA 20166-1108 but postmarked/meter from zip code 03801 (Portsmouth, NH?).

Last edited by TA; Jan 30, 2024 at 12:54 am
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Old Jan 8, 2024 | 2:41 pm
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I was stupid and mailed a standard passport book renewal via regular mail instead of Priority mail on December 26th. I felt like I was waiting eons of time until the system finally updated to show that they received the application 1/5. I see the check was cashed today 1/8. Based on recent data points, I am hoping the new passport will be mailed out later this week.
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Old Jan 12, 2024 | 7:09 am
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What is the order of steps for the Application Status? I know that it starts with "In Process" when they receive and input your application into the system. What is the next steps it will change to after this?
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