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)
Sep 1, 2020 | 8:37 pm
#721
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2002
Location: NYC, USA
Programs: AA EXP 3MM, Lifetime Platinum, Marriott Titanium, HH Gold
Posts: 11,049
There is a (minor) argument for NOT having both expire at the same time. If one document expires because you forgot, or gets lost when you mail it in for renewal (the current state of the post office could continue or get worse, and other methods are not allowed), at least you have the other one and it won't expire for a while.
Sep 1, 2020 | 9:20 pm
#722
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2002
Programs: UA Gold MM; AA Gold MM; WN A-List; IHG Diamond Ambassador; Marriott Gold; Hyatt Explorist
Posts: 24,564
We applied for my teenagers’ new passports on July 21, 2020 at the post office and they arrived in the mail today, September 1, 2020. Given the processing backlog earlier this year, I’m pretty pleased with the turnaround time, Now to find an international trip that doesn’t get wiped out by COVID restrictions or flight cancellations!
Sep 2, 2020 | 7:04 am
#723
Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 152
Actually, it sadly does not work that way. When you apply to renew EITHER passport document, you are required to send in BOTH types of documents in your possession to verify your citizenship and identity. You cannot hang onto the non-expiring one to use in the meantime. So, for example, if you have an expiring passport book and a valid passport card, you must send in BOTH when you apply for just the passport book renewal. In the past, DOS has recommended that you put a yellow sticky note on the non-expiring document that says "DO NOT CANCEL-Proof of Citizenship Only." There is a risk that the passport office might mistakenly cancel both documents you submit, when only one of them is actually expiring, and the other was just to prove your citizenship (and should be returned to you without being canceled). So, there is really no benefit, and some extra stress, in having the two document types expiring at different times. Just my two cents.
Sep 3, 2020 | 9:19 pm
#724
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: LAX
Posts: 11,580
As of September, we have completed processing applications received in March and are 92 percent through the applications received in April, May, and June. Due to nationwide variations in staffing and the type of applications, some of our passport agencies and centers are already working on applications received in July and August. If you applied before April and have not received your passport yet, we may have sent you a letter requesting additional information to continue processing your application. Please respond to this letter.
Sep 4, 2020 | 9:48 am
#725
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: UA Plat & 1MM, AA, DL
Posts: 8,692
State Department says now is a good time to renew/apply:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...ge%2Fstory-ans
https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...ge%2Fstory-ans
Sep 4, 2020 | 4:53 pm
#726
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 15,858
As I stated back in June, "TWA884 - The backlog is what currently, 3 months? Maybe will be 4? I guarantee that those who put their applications in over the last 3 months will see at least that backlog as well as those who put them in now and for the next month or two. However I also envision that those putting in applications in September/October are not going to see any significant backlog. So again if my passport were expiring in December of January or later. especially in the current situation I would just wait it out. OTOH, for the life of me I would never ever do an application through the mail at the best of times, if in the US, I would just go and get it done same day within14 days of a trip, or just do it from abroad where in my experience it has ALWAYS taken less than 2 weeks, often less than a week."
Sep 4, 2020 | 9:20 pm
#727
Moderator: Travel Safety/Security, Travel Tools, California, Los Angeles; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: oneword Emerald
Posts: 24,766
Actually, that's not what is reported in The Washington Post article linked above:
***
A large backlog of passport applications that was waiting to be processed when the Bureau of Consular Affairs, which also handles visas, went into lockdown in mid-March has been tackled. Passport processors are now chipping away at applications that have arrived since then.
***
Now, after resuming operations on a limited basis in mid-June, officials say they have worked through the initial backlog and expect to return to normal processing times this fall. “We’ve gotten through essentially all of the backlog work, and now we’re getting back to a regular rhythm,” Ian Brownlee, the principal deputy in Consular Affairs, said this week in a video chat on the future of international travel hosted on the travel website The Points Guy. “If you’re thinking of traveling nine months out, why not apply now? The thing’s good for 10 years.”
Despite the optimistic outlook, there are still delays. The State Department says it currently takes about 10 weeks to process a passport, from application to delivery in the mail. That’s up from the six to eight weeks it typically took before the pandemic brought almost everything to a halt and the State Department stopped issuing expedited passports, which for an extra fee can get a passport in just two or three weeks.
***
...all passport processors have been declared “mission critical employees.” But the passport centers where they work are only opening gradually, after local health authorities say it is safe for workers to return.
***
A large backlog of passport applications that was waiting to be processed when the Bureau of Consular Affairs, which also handles visas, went into lockdown in mid-March has been tackled. Passport processors are now chipping away at applications that have arrived since then.
***
Now, after resuming operations on a limited basis in mid-June, officials say they have worked through the initial backlog and expect to return to normal processing times this fall. “We’ve gotten through essentially all of the backlog work, and now we’re getting back to a regular rhythm,” Ian Brownlee, the principal deputy in Consular Affairs, said this week in a video chat on the future of international travel hosted on the travel website The Points Guy. “If you’re thinking of traveling nine months out, why not apply now? The thing’s good for 10 years.”
Despite the optimistic outlook, there are still delays. The State Department says it currently takes about 10 weeks to process a passport, from application to delivery in the mail. That’s up from the six to eight weeks it typically took before the pandemic brought almost everything to a halt and the State Department stopped issuing expedited passports, which for an extra fee can get a passport in just two or three weeks.
***
...all passport processors have been declared “mission critical employees.” But the passport centers where they work are only opening gradually, after local health authorities say it is safe for workers to return.
***
Sep 5, 2020 | 12:51 am
#728
Join Date: Sep 2020
Posts: 1
Aryani
hi Folks.. I applied for passport book and card for my baby girl on 18th July from USPS, Buffalo, NY and today received email that passport application is approved and shipped. Passport book and card will be delivered by 09/12. So it took me around 7 weeks for approval and 8 weeks in hand.
Sep 10, 2020 | 2:11 pm
#729
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 5,818
Short workweek...applications dropped, passports issued also dropped but exceeded applications received by 19,000. Yet passports awaiting issuance did not decrease, in fact increased by 25,000.
It's the Twilight Zone. We will never get our new passports.
Week (Thursday-Wednesday) Applications Received Passports Awaiting Issuance** Passports Issued*
This Week (Sep 4-Sep 10) 110,000 944,000 129,000
Last Week (Aug 27-Sep 3) 151,000 919,000 168,000
2 Weeks Ago (Aug 20-Aug 26) 165,000 938,000 156,000
It's the Twilight Zone. We will never get our new passports.
Week (Thursday-Wednesday) Applications Received Passports Awaiting Issuance** Passports Issued*
This Week (Sep 4-Sep 10) 110,000 944,000 129,000
Last Week (Aug 27-Sep 3) 151,000 919,000 168,000
2 Weeks Ago (Aug 20-Aug 26) 165,000 938,000 156,000
Last edited by SeeBuyFly; Sep 10, 2020 at 2:16 pm
Sep 10, 2020 | 8:39 pm
#731
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
With regard to the question, it depends on how it gets routed and the conditions applicable to that and the application itself; but even where it may turn out to be faster at times, it wont be faster always. On average, the fastest times for an application sent in resulting in an issued standard passport being available to the applicant without an expedite fee is as follows: applications accepted at US embassies/consulates.
Sep 15, 2020 | 3:54 pm
#732
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Go west young man!
Posts: 567
We should have:
Passport Awaiting Issuance =
Passport Awaiting Issuance from Prior Week + Applications Received During Week - Passports Issued During Week
But
944k > 919k + 110k - 129k (Off by 44k???)
The prior week is pretty close
919k ≈ 938k + 151K - 168k (off by 2k)
Sep 15, 2020 | 4:52 pm
#733
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,774
I know this is highly anecdotal, but I have a friend living in Austin who applied three weeks ago for their passport renewal and received their new passport a week ago. They sent in their paperwork with a check for expedited service. Everything was processed within two weeks. They said the only delay was due to needing to show paperwork from a divorce.
