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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 Feb 11, 2021 | 10:06 am
  #916  
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: NYC
Programs: DL PM, Marriott/Hilton Gold
Posts: 33
Originally Posted by Villaj727
I applied for 2 passports for my Toddlers on 1/8/2021. Didn't pay for expedited service...
Where did you apply? Was it domestic or international?
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Old Feb 11, 2021 | 10:35 am
  #917  
 
Join Date: Feb 2021
Posts: 2
Originally Posted by NYCNorm
Where did you apply? Was it domestic or international?
I applied at a local library. (Domestic)
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Old Feb 11, 2021 | 2:43 pm
  #918  
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: NYC
Programs: DL PM, Marriott/Hilton Gold
Posts: 33
Originally Posted by Villaj727
I applied at a local library. (Domestic)
We applied at our local post office in January and it took 20 days for the processing center to receive our application. It might be worth a call to the library to see if they have a tracking number on the packet of applications they sent in. With all of the delays in the USPS system at the moment, it might take some time for the application to reach the processing center.
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Old Feb 11, 2021 | 2:47 pm
  #919  
 
Join Date: Feb 2021
Posts: 2
Jan 15: Applied for first passport for baby daughter with the county passport acceptance agent - Regular - NOT expedited
Jan 19: Online status shows "In Process"
Feb 5: Status shows approved
Feb 11: Delivered (Mailed from Tucson, AZ)

Total time exactly 4 weeks - Regular service

Just FYI where you apply - office or state has no bearing on where your application is processed, printed (could be different than processing), and mailed. That is decided from what I understand on some demand and backlog logic at each center/agency.
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Old Feb 11, 2021 | 9:07 pm
  #920  
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Originally Posted by Trialer
Jan 15: Applied for first passport for baby daughter with the county passport acceptance agent - Regular - NOT expedited
Jan 19: Online status shows "In Process"
Feb 5: Status shows approved
Feb 11: Delivered (Mailed from Tucson, AZ)

Total time exactly 4 weeks - Regular service

Just FYI where you apply - office or state has no bearing on where your application is processed, printed (could be different than processing), and mailed. That is decided from what I understand on some demand and backlog logic at each center/agency.
Very swift! Quite envious here. Did you also receive status emails, and, if so, did they correspond to the status shown on the web page?
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Old Feb 12, 2021 | 1:34 am
  #921  
 
Join Date: Feb 2021
Posts: 2
Originally Posted by crescatfloreat
Very swift! Quite envious here. Did you also receive status emails, and, if so, did they correspond to the status shown on the web page?
I did receive the "In Process" status email about 2 weeks after it had already changed online and also after it got "Approved". The "Approved" status online did not change to "Mailed" even after receiving the passport.
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Old Feb 12, 2021 | 7:00 pm
  #922  
 
Join Date: Feb 2021
Posts: 7
Havent received passport

Does anyone know if I can get a passport reissued if I havent received it after 10 days? I paid to have the express shipping. If so how long does it take. Can they send me another one?
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Old Feb 13, 2021 | 4:11 pm
  #923  
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Originally Posted by Trialer
I did receive the "In Process" status email about 2 weeks after it had already changed online and also after it got "Approved". The "Approved" status online did not change to "Mailed" even after receiving the passport.
Helpful emails...

Originally Posted by Mkh4ui
Does anyone know if I can get a passport reissued if I havent received it after 10 days? I paid to have the express shipping. If so how long does it take. Can they send me another one?
Has it been sent out already? It might just be stuck with the slow postal services.
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Old Feb 14, 2021 | 3:34 pm
  #924  
 
Join Date: Feb 2021
Posts: 7
It was mailed on the 8th as overnight Express. USPS showed a scan of it leaving Little Rock on the 8th but there hasn't been a scan since then. The local post office believes it was sorted wrong and sent first class mail. We are leaving for our trip on in 3 weeks. My wife and I originally sent in a renewal on December 12th but they were both lost in the mail so we had to do new on in January. Now it appears mine may be lost again. My wife did get hers last week via UPS. I hope they can reissue me another one quickly if it is lost.
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Old Feb 15, 2021 | 9:09 am
  #925  
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Wow - not a good performance of the Post Office!
I'd give the NPIC a call now and explain the situation. I think the delay is sufficient to start presuming it's lost or very delayed.
And three weeks should be enough to salvage the effort with a new passport if bad luck does not continue to strike!
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Old Feb 15, 2021 | 5:00 pm
  #926  
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Originally Posted by Mkh4ui
It was mailed on the 8th as overnight Express. USPS showed a scan of it leaving Little Rock on the 8th but there hasn't been a scan since then. The local post office believes it was sorted wrong and sent first class mail. We are leaving for our trip on in 3 weeks. My wife and I originally sent in a renewal on December 12th but they were both lost in the mail so we had to do new on in January. Now it appears mine may be lost again. My wife did get hers last week via UPS. I hope they can reissue me another one quickly if it is lost.
Who knows how many mail trucks have been delayed, smashed up, skidded off highways, or another of other potential travel maladies in the past week.
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Old Feb 17, 2021 | 8:46 am
  #927  
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Join Date: Apr 2011
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Nov 23rd: mailed renewal
Dec 1st: check cashed and status changed to "In Process" on website
Feb 13th: Received a super-timely email saying they had received by application on 11/30 and it was in process, noting 10-12 week turnaround (seems unlikely at this point...)

I would be pretty annoyed if it didn't look like my international travel is getting canceled anyway.

I wonder if the email update happens when they actually start working on it? Otherwise, I don't much see the point in sending an email 10 weeks after receipt if the whole process is supposed to take 10-12 weeks
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Old Feb 17, 2021 | 6:35 pm
  #928  
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Join Date: Mar 2009
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Originally Posted by Mr. BoH
I wonder if the email update happens when they actually start working on it? Otherwise, I don't much see the point in sending an email 10 weeks after receipt if the whole process is supposed to take 10-12 weeks
It furiously looks like it from the comments here, and also what I experienced. Unless it is entirely random.

What also seems odd is how long the whole processing can take. I'd have navely hoped that once someone looks at it and signs it off after review of the source documents, the application and the old document - where applicable - it gets produced quite swiftly.
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Old Feb 17, 2021 | 6:41 pm
  #929  
 
Join Date: Feb 2020
Posts: 95
Originally Posted by crescatfloreat
It furiously looks like it from the comments here, and also what I experienced. Unless it is entirely random.

What also seems odd is how long the whole processing can take. I'd have navely hoped that once someone looks at it and signs it off after review of the source documents, the application and the old document - where applicable - it gets produced quite swiftly.
I honestly think the email is random. I applied for a renewal for my son who is 5 years old. We applied at USPS 01/22 and got an email they received it and processing 01/28. If they started working on it 01/28, they would have shipped it by now. Im not in a hurry and we applied for normal processing.
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Old Feb 19, 2021 | 7:51 am
  #930  
 
Join Date: Feb 2021
Posts: 2
Originally Posted by mamanerd
We sent our renewals in December. Filled out paperwork online, printed and sent in with DIY photos. Not expedited.
Passport status:
Received 12/22/20
Checks cashed 12/23/20
Status "in process" ever since.

I'm REALLY hoping that some of the luck I'm seeing here rubs off on us!

UPDATE:
2/14: Received email that passport was in process.
2/18: Received email from Passport office that passport application was approved, book was being printed, and estimated arrival would be 2/24.
updated information

Note: husband's application submitted at the same time, put "in process" at the same time, is still in process as of 2/19.
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