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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 Oct 24, 2020 | 1:09 pm
  #796  
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
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applied oct 5,
delivered yesterday, oct 23.

email said oct 25, but got here early. Expedited service at postal center in Northern California.

needed them before thanksgiving as outside chance of international trip, but with Covid increasing, not likely.


Originally Posted by azepine00
Data point
California - mailed to Texas center
Received application 8/17
Passport shipped 10/20
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Old Oct 30, 2020 | 4:48 pm
  #797  
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Originally Posted by aimango
Have been following this thread for a few months and finally pulled the trigger since expedited service is back.
10/5 afternoon - Sent in my application at USPS for expedited
10/8 delivered, In Process according to Passport tracking site. Didn't get an email though.
10/9 Check processing

Will update once status changes
Just got the email that my passport was approved 10/30. Email says it'll arrive 11/4.
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Old Nov 6, 2020 | 10:55 pm
  #798  
 
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Correction, did not actually pick up mail, but turned out it was for my wife and kids. They were either new or lost, so sent to La. Just got mine today and was through NH.


Originally Posted by leftpinky
applied oct 5,
delivered yesterday, oct 23.

email said oct 25, but got here early. Expedited service at postal center in Northern California.

needed them before thanksgiving as outside chance of international trip, but with Covid increasing, not likely.
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Old Nov 15, 2020 | 10:55 am
  #799  
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Sent passport to TX on September 3. It took about a week to get there. Received new passport and card on November 13.

Last edited by Eastbay1K; Nov 22, 2020 at 11:04 am
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Old Nov 18, 2020 | 9:50 am
  #800  
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info was received 9/11, 5 weeks ago i paid for expedited but heard nothing

called today and they said theres no note on about travel so i gave them my dec 10 travel date and she didnt give me any assurances but since thats even the 12 week frame i sure hope i get it by then. getting tad nervous. has anyone that applied in sept not gotten it in 12 weeks.
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Old Nov 22, 2020 | 11:05 am
  #801  
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Originally Posted by Eastbay1K
Sent passport to TX on September 3. It took about a week to get there. Received new passport and card on November 13.

Original "hole punched" passport arrived yesterday, with a Tucson zip code postage meter mark.
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Old Nov 23, 2020 | 1:59 pm
  #802  
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does' your application is at a point where you cannot even expedite it. mean anything?

info received by them 9/11. i called oct 6 to expedite. i called nov 18 to expedite, and again today. this is the 1st time someone said its not in a position to be expedited. but she cannot tell me if any other dates it was 'in a position not to be expedited

she did say it was coming from SC so at least i know that much but i have my trip in 2 weeks which will be at the 12 week deadline so its close and ddriving me nuts
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Old Nov 25, 2020 | 7:21 am
  #803  
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well last night 9pm i got notified ill have passport on the 30th. yippee. so 9/11 to nov 30 if it arrives then. unsure if was my begging monday on the call or just timing

edit: now dec 2. ugh. they are torturing me. just 8 days to spare before the trip

Last edited by luckydriver; Nov 25, 2020 at 9:08 am
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Old Nov 29, 2020 | 8:45 am
  #804  
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Question for you all . . . I have a nine year-old daughter whose passport expires on 2/28.

We plan to take a trip over the holidays, departing around Christmas, to Colombia or Brazil. We'll be back by around 1/1. Is it okay to wait until then to renew her passport, or should we get it renewed now using an expeditor?

Thank you!
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Old Nov 29, 2020 | 8:47 pm
  #805  
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Originally Posted by JNelson113
Question for you all . . . I have a nine year-old daughter whose passport expires on 2/28.

We plan to take a trip over the holidays, departing around Christmas, to Colombia or Brazil. We'll be back by around 1/1. Is it okay to wait until then to renew her passport, or should we get it renewed now using an expeditor?

Thank you!
Get it renewed like yesterday, on an expedited basis however best you can. Using a passport to travel abroad when it has less than 3 months or at times even six months of validity remaining can be a problem when wanting to go somewhere abroad.

I'd rather not be looking into a visit to Smith Street around Christmas.
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Old Nov 29, 2020 | 9:25 pm
  #806  
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Originally Posted by GUWonder
Get it renewed like yesterday, on an expedited basis however best you can. Using a passport to travel abroad when it has less than 3 months or at times even six months of validity remaining can be a problem when wanting to go somewhere abroad.

I'd rather not be looking into a visit to Smith Street around Christmas.
Thank you!
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Old Nov 30, 2020 | 6:32 am
  #807  
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That is an interesting question. I am not sure that Brazil currently in fact has any 3 or 6 month validity issue for US passports currently. It would seem from searching around the web that no one does. There are plenty of sites which list 6 months as their authoritative number HOWEVER every single one of them is either a year old and many scraping information which is 4-10 years old, which in itself was flawed? Why? Well until 2019 US citizens needed to get a visa to travel to Brazil, however Bolsanaro ended that last year, when US citizens received visas they often received 5 or 10 year visas, and quite frankly you could essentially travel to Brazil up until the last day of your passport, as long as you had a valid visa, if fact they would not ISSUE you a visa unless you had at least 6 months left of your passport - so all info is flawed and out of context. So no, it is not so clear........... with different Brazilian missions even having different things posted on their sites. I would note that the Timatic tools that I just tried (slow day) have no issue even when putting in your passport expiration date(s).So I would strongly suggest contacting the Embassy in Washington (not the Consulates) and getting them to confirm. I have a strong feeling that it is 3 months and you would be under the wire.

As for Colombia, AFAIK Colombia has never had a 3 or 6 month rule, whether enforced of not.
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Old Nov 30, 2020 | 10:37 am
  #808  
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Don't you have to get a visa for Brazil?

And in some cases they want your passport which they would return with your visa?
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Old Nov 30, 2020 | 10:48 am
  #809  
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Originally Posted by exp
Don't you have to get a visa for Brazil?
No.

Take a look at the following thread in the Brazil forum:
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Old Nov 30, 2020 | 3:47 pm
  #810  
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Thanks all for assisting JNelson113. Let's attempt to keep this massive focused thread on topic, although some slight deviation in evitable. The core subject is something heavily trafficked here on Flyertalk, and I would suspect probably brings in guests from Google searches.
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