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)
Jun 25, 2020 | 11:14 am
#601
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: SFO
Posts: 5,200
Jun 25, 2020 | 1:27 pm
#603
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 658
Some new passport applications have been processed and resulted in passports being issued even before the backlog has been cleared, despite whatever a USG website says.
The passport application backlogs wont necessarily be run down entirely for quite some time this year, even within the next 8 weeks; nor will the backlog be necessarily reducing for each and every day/week change. Its not going to be a perfectly smooth linear decline.
At some point again this year, passport applicants in the US will again have the option to pay for expedited service. If you can wait until September/October for in-person application and go for paid expedited service or apply outside of the US to get free expedited service, then that is what I would suggest doing.
I am with hflys suggestion to try to avoid submitting passport applications in the US via mail at this point if you can help it and try to avoid it even more so if you dont have enough documents retained to make an emergency/expedited application later this year if an application submitted now/earlier gets bungled.
Tracking numbers on mail/packages for passport applicants dont always work (or get used) perfectly even in more normal times for US passport applicants, and nowadays process failures related to applications are likely to be substantially higher than typical including with regard to mail/courier and tracking numbers for such.
The backlog has been growing in parts even while there has been phased-in openings. And on top of the usual demand and that related to the 9/11+WHTI driven demand, there is also the on-year election-related demand for US passports.
The passport application backlogs wont necessarily be run down entirely for quite some time this year, even within the next 8 weeks; nor will the backlog be necessarily reducing for each and every day/week change. Its not going to be a perfectly smooth linear decline.
At some point again this year, passport applicants in the US will again have the option to pay for expedited service. If you can wait until September/October for in-person application and go for paid expedited service or apply outside of the US to get free expedited service, then that is what I would suggest doing.
I am with hflys suggestion to try to avoid submitting passport applications in the US via mail at this point if you can help it and try to avoid it even more so if you dont have enough documents retained to make an emergency/expedited application later this year if an application submitted now/earlier gets bungled.
Tracking numbers on mail/packages for passport applicants dont always work (or get used) perfectly even in more normal times for US passport applicants, and nowadays process failures related to applications are likely to be substantially higher than typical including with regard to mail/courier and tracking numbers for such.
The backlog has been growing in parts even while there has been phased-in openings. And on top of the usual demand and that related to the 9/11+WHTI driven demand, there is also the on-year election-related demand for US passports.
It says on the Department of State website that passport expediting will not be available until phase 3 of the reopening. Do you know when this is likely to take place?
Also, do you have a guess regarding when the passport expediting companies will be able to reopen? I found one online that states that they can process a renewal giving 30 days time and was wondering whether this might actually work, or if the passport would just get stuck even sending it in using the service, making this a waste of money and an overall bad option.
Jun 25, 2020 | 4:23 pm
#604
Join Date: Dec 2011
Programs: United, Delta
Posts: 55
3. Are you making progress on U.S. passport applications?
Yes. Every Thursday, we will publish U.S. passport statistics in the table below so you can track our weekly progress as staff at our agencies and centers safely work on applications. This week, 14 of our agencies and centers moved to phase one of our three phase reopening plan. You can find historical U.S. passport statistics on our Reports and Statistics page.
Week (Thursday-Wednesday) Applications Received Passports Awaiting Issuance Passports Issued
This Week (June 18-24) Received 134,000; Backlog 1.61 million; Issued 187,000
Last Week (June 11-17) 120,000- 1.72 million;-154,000
2 Weeks Ago (June 4-10) 92,000 -1.79 million -38,000
**The chart format didn't copy correctly; but some progress
Yes. Every Thursday, we will publish U.S. passport statistics in the table below so you can track our weekly progress as staff at our agencies and centers safely work on applications. This week, 14 of our agencies and centers moved to phase one of our three phase reopening plan. You can find historical U.S. passport statistics on our Reports and Statistics page.
Week (Thursday-Wednesday) Applications Received Passports Awaiting Issuance Passports Issued
This Week (June 18-24) Received 134,000; Backlog 1.61 million; Issued 187,000
Last Week (June 11-17) 120,000- 1.72 million;-154,000
2 Weeks Ago (June 4-10) 92,000 -1.79 million -38,000
**The chart format didn't copy correctly; but some progress
Jun 25, 2020 | 7:38 pm
#605
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: PHL
Programs: AA EXP, HH Diamond, Owner of 2,000 TWA shares
Posts: 812
I'm not sure that I had any other choice than to send it in in March. Many countries won't allow entry if your PP expires within 6 months. That puts me as a no-go anytime after July anyway.
Jun 26, 2020 | 1:34 am
#606
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
3. Are you making progress on U.S. passport applications?
Yes. Every Thursday, we will publish U.S. passport statistics in the table below so you can track our weekly progress as staff at our agencies and centers safely work on applications. This week, 14 of our agencies and centers moved to phase one of our three phase reopening plan. You can find historical U.S. passport statistics on our Reports and Statistics page.
Week (Thursday-Wednesday) Applications Received Passports Awaiting Issuance Passports Issued
This Week (June 18-24) Received 134,000; Backlog 1.61 million; Issued 187,000
Last Week (June 11-17) 120,000- 1.72 million;-154,000
2 Weeks Ago (June 4-10) 92,000 -1.79 million -38,000
**The chart format didn't copy correctly; but some progress
Yes. Every Thursday, we will publish U.S. passport statistics in the table below so you can track our weekly progress as staff at our agencies and centers safely work on applications. This week, 14 of our agencies and centers moved to phase one of our three phase reopening plan. You can find historical U.S. passport statistics on our Reports and Statistics page.
Week (Thursday-Wednesday) Applications Received Passports Awaiting Issuance Passports Issued
This Week (June 18-24) Received 134,000; Backlog 1.61 million; Issued 187,000
Last Week (June 11-17) 120,000- 1.72 million;-154,000
2 Weeks Ago (June 4-10) 92,000 -1.79 million -38,000
**The chart format didn't copy correctly; but some progress
The backlog should be run down in large part before August, especially if people realize international travel plans are likely to be continued to be wrecked until the end of summer and maybe even beyond due to the US’ virus numbers.
Jun 26, 2020 | 8:32 am
#607
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 6
02/19/2020 - Passport renewal application received (Philadelphia / Standard)
02/21/2020 - Check cashed
02/22/2020 - Passport application 'In Process' via website
04/30/2020 - I called and was told the application is still 'In Process'
05/20/2020 - Passport application 'In Process' via website
05/28/2020 - Passport application 'Not Found' via website
06/01/2020 - I called and was told 2 different things by the same CSR who refused to check my status.
06/24/2020 - Received passport today (Date issued 06/15/2020)
06/26/2020 - Received supporting documents today
02/21/2020 - Check cashed
02/22/2020 - Passport application 'In Process' via website
04/30/2020 - I called and was told the application is still 'In Process'
05/20/2020 - Passport application 'In Process' via website
05/28/2020 - Passport application 'Not Found' via website
06/01/2020 - I called and was told 2 different things by the same CSR who refused to check my status.
06/24/2020 - Received passport today (Date issued 06/15/2020)
06/26/2020 - Received supporting documents today
Jun 26, 2020 | 8:57 am
#608
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: The Land of Pleasant Living
Programs: Marriott Ambassador, AA ExecPlat, Amtrak Select Exec, former WN apologist
Posts: 1,936
3. Are you making progress on U.S. passport applications?
Yes. Every Thursday, we will publish U.S. passport statistics in the table below so you can track our weekly progress as staff at our agencies and centers safely work on applications. This week, 14 of our agencies and centers moved to phase one of our three phase reopening plan. You can find historical U.S. passport statistics on our Reports and Statistics page.
Week (Thursday-Wednesday) Applications Received Passports Awaiting Issuance Passports Issued
This Week (June 18-24) Received 134,000; Backlog 1.61 million; Issued 187,000
Last Week (June 11-17) 120,000- 1.72 million;-154,000
2 Weeks Ago (June 4-10) 92,000 -1.79 million -38,000
**The chart format didn't copy correctly; but some progress
Yes. Every Thursday, we will publish U.S. passport statistics in the table below so you can track our weekly progress as staff at our agencies and centers safely work on applications. This week, 14 of our agencies and centers moved to phase one of our three phase reopening plan. You can find historical U.S. passport statistics on our Reports and Statistics page.
Week (Thursday-Wednesday) Applications Received Passports Awaiting Issuance Passports Issued
This Week (June 18-24) Received 134,000; Backlog 1.61 million; Issued 187,000
Last Week (June 11-17) 120,000- 1.72 million;-154,000
2 Weeks Ago (June 4-10) 92,000 -1.79 million -38,000
**The chart format didn't copy correctly; but some progress
Jun 27, 2020 | 12:55 pm
#609
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 15,854
Noddy, forgetting the fact that I have already addressed this several times in this thread, forgetting the fact that no one is really going anywhere these days, and forgetting the fact that that many countries have waived this and will contribute to do so, according to IATA, these are the countries that have such a regulation :
- Belize
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Burma (Myanmar)
- Burundi
- China
- Cote dIvoire (Ivory Coast)
- Ecuador (including Galpagos Islands)
- French Polynesia
- Guyana
- Honduras
- Indonesia
- Kenya
- Malaysia
- Mauritius
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Papua New Guinea
- Philippines
- Singapore
- Taiwan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste (East Timor)
- Turkey
- Uganda
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
Jun 27, 2020 | 1:56 pm
#610
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: RBKC
Programs: AA EXP and Eurostar Carte Blanche
Posts: 4,122
Jun 27, 2020 | 7:59 pm
#611
Moderator: Avianca, Travel Photography, Travel Technology & USA
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Far western edge of the La-La Land City limits
Programs: Emeritus VIP Fromins Deli Encino grandfathered successor program - UA MM & HH Diamond
Posts: 3,811
Please stay on topic
U.S. passport wait is the subject.
Jul 3, 2020 | 3:17 pm
#612
Join Date: Sep 2019
Posts: 10
Looks like they are picking up pace.
Week (Thursday-Wednesday) Applications Received Passports Awaiting Issuance Passports Issued
This Week (June 25-July 1) 133,000 1.59 million 236,000
Last Week (June 18-24) 134,000 1.61 million 187,000
2 Weeks Ago (June 11-17) 120,000 1.72 million 154,000
3 Weeks Ago (June 4-10) 92,000 1.79 million 38,000
Has anybody received their passport recently? If so, when did you apply? I applied for my child's renewal in mid March, but nothing yet.
Week (Thursday-Wednesday) Applications Received Passports Awaiting Issuance Passports Issued
This Week (June 25-July 1) 133,000 1.59 million 236,000
Last Week (June 18-24) 134,000 1.61 million 187,000
2 Weeks Ago (June 11-17) 120,000 1.72 million 154,000
3 Weeks Ago (June 4-10) 92,000 1.79 million 38,000
Has anybody received their passport recently? If so, when did you apply? I applied for my child's renewal in mid March, but nothing yet.
Jul 4, 2020 | 2:01 pm
#613
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 16
Hi,
Has anyone had a passport application back from Texas since Covid?
My fiance applied for her expedited passport on the very morning expedited was withdrawn so was only allowed to apply for the normal route. That was over 15 weeks ago and we are pulling our hair out in frustration as we are both on different continents and I can’t get into the US due to The travel restrictions and she can’t get out due to not having her passport.
Any news would be welcome.
Thanks
Has anyone had a passport application back from Texas since Covid?
My fiance applied for her expedited passport on the very morning expedited was withdrawn so was only allowed to apply for the normal route. That was over 15 weeks ago and we are pulling our hair out in frustration as we are both on different continents and I can’t get into the US due to The travel restrictions and she can’t get out due to not having her passport.
Any news would be welcome.
Thanks
Jul 8, 2020 | 2:54 am
#614
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
The big passport application backlog has been eaten into at a rate of about 100,000 per week in recent weeks. But the backlog is still substantially above 1M. And the last reported backlog had it at around 1.5M. The backlog is expected to probably be in the range of 1.2-1.38M still but final numbers should be out soon.
Still no guidance circulating on if fee-based expedited service for general application processing will come back before September/October.
Still no guidance circulating on if fee-based expedited service for general application processing will come back before September/October.
Jul 9, 2020 | 6:08 am
#615
Join Date: Dec 2011
Programs: United, Delta
Posts: 55
Checked my email this morning, July 9 and saw an email from the Dept of State, sent at 2340 July 8, notifying me my passport is being shipped by US Priority mail, tracking number included. Whooooo- hooooo!
Mailed old passport to Irving TX on March 13, so about four months door to door. FYI
Mailed old passport to Irving TX on March 13, so about four months door to door. FYI
Last edited by BillyBaht; Jul 9, 2020 at 6:15 am