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)
Apr 12, 2021 | 7:56 am
#1113
Join Date: Apr 2021
Posts: 70
Apr 12, 2021 | 8:10 am
#1114
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Miami, Florida
Posts: 22
Based on your travel date you have more than enough time. but if for some reason you need them sooner you can contact your senator or congressional representative, they have a constituent services office that deals only with passports, a lot of people have done that and they get their passports in a matter of days, some as soon as 24 hours.
Apr 12, 2021 | 2:01 pm
#1115
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 2
Based on your travel date you have more than enough time. but if for some reason you need them sooner you can contact your senator or congressional representative, they have a constituent services office that deals only with passports, a lot of people have done that and they get their passports in a matter of days, some as soon as 24 hours.
Apr 12, 2021 | 6:06 pm
#1116
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
Based on your travel date you have more than enough time. but if for some reason you need them sooner you can contact your senator or congressional representative, they have a constituent services office that deals only with passports, a lot of people have done that and they get their passports in a matter of days, some as soon as 24 hours.
US Senators and US House members do have constituent services offices, but I doubt that most (if any) of them deal only with passports. Rather, dealing with passports is one of the collection of things that are part of the constituent services provided by staff; and so they should be able to handle constituents' struggles with passports since it's one of the things that repeatedly come up as part of their job.
Apr 12, 2021 | 7:10 pm
#1117
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 88
Ours on the other hand show are in progress as of 3/23 with no updates since. Calling the senator did not help at all unless we pay for expedited.
Apr 12, 2021 | 7:12 pm
#1118
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 88
I can attest to this. I had to get my passport by the end of March for some travel plans. I was waiting around ~1 month back in February before I contacted my senator. They have staff that directly reach out to the agency and I got it mailed back within 48 hours of contacting them.
Problem is even then, they do NOT guarantee anything for up to 20 more day after you expedited. It may come early, it may take 20 days.
We're still waiting.
Apr 12, 2021 | 7:20 pm
#1119
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Miami, Florida
Posts: 22
Tried that. Yes. The senator's office did say they have a dedicated person who deals with this. It still took them 3 business days to get back and then they said we can give them a CC or call the agency, talk to someone and pay the expedited charge
Problem is even then, they do NOT guarantee anything for up to 20 more day after you expedited. It may come early, it may take 20 days.
We're still waiting.
Problem is even then, they do NOT guarantee anything for up to 20 more day after you expedited. It may come early, it may take 20 days.
We're still waiting.
Apr 12, 2021 | 7:41 pm
#1120
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: NY
Posts: 7
Here's my experience,
Applied: 3/15
In Process: 3/19
Called DOS on 4/8 noon time, on hold for ~ 50 min, then requested & paid to expedite. My CC was charged in the afternoon & status changed to expedited processing. Then next day, Passport status showed as "Shipped" with USPS Priority mail tracking#. I received my new PP today (4/12) along with NC in separate manila folder so looks like, expediting service was worth it.
Applied: 3/15
In Process: 3/19
Called DOS on 4/8 noon time, on hold for ~ 50 min, then requested & paid to expedite. My CC was charged in the afternoon & status changed to expedited processing. Then next day, Passport status showed as "Shipped" with USPS Priority mail tracking#. I received my new PP today (4/12) along with NC in separate manila folder so looks like, expediting service was worth it.
Apr 12, 2021 | 7:55 pm
#1121
Join Date: Apr 2021
Posts: 3
Passport Anxiety
So I applied for my passport 01/15/2021, they did not process it until March 22, 2021. It's in New Hampshire. My trip is scheduled for 04/29/21 I called today to have it expedited and 1-2 day shipping. It came off my credit card within an hour. That was early afternoon. Had a weird feeling and just called back tonight that its an question mark/pending alert, but it is in the hands of someone else. They explained it had no notation, and to call back tomorrow to see if it clears. I have nothing on my background, credit anything like that..I'm in pure panic because now I'm afraid it won't arrive in time. What else can I do? I emailed two state representatives and just got an automated response. 16 days until I leave.
Apr 12, 2021 | 8:00 pm
#1122
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 88
They gave me the same status of it can take up-to 10 - 12 weeks to process and if we needed it sooner, they can call in the expedition by using our CC or we can call them and once we pay, we need to call the senator's office to see if they can get the passports released in a day or two v/s standard 20 business days line.
Apr 12, 2021 | 8:02 pm
#1123
Join Date: Apr 2021
Posts: 3
They gave me the same status of it can take up-to 10 - 12 weeks to process and if we needed it sooner, they can call in the expedition by using our CC or we can call them and once we pay, we need to call the senator's office to see if they can get the passports released in a day or two v/s standard 20 business days line.
Apr 13, 2021 | 5:13 pm
#1124
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: WAS
Programs: enjoyed being warm spit for a few years on CO/UA but now nothing :(
Posts: 2,818
It will get through the mail system and to being processed much faster and be trackable. I just let my kids' renewals be sent via normal mail from the Post Office where we had the appointment with no special postage and have no idea where it is. Neither does state nor the USPS. Fortunately, we have no international travel expected in the next couple of months. Just checked today, almost exactly 4 weeks from application date of 3/15, and website still shows "status unavailable."
Apr 13, 2021 | 8:00 pm
#1125
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: NYC
Programs: AA 2MM, Bonvoy LTT, Hilton Gold
Posts: 15,009
You should be fine BUT - pay to have your kids application sent via priority mail.
It will get through the mail system and to being processed much faster and be trackable. I just let my kids' renewals be sent via normal mail from the Post Office where we had the appointment with no special postage and have no idea where it is. Neither does state nor the USPS. Fortunately, we have no international travel expected in the next couple of months. Just checked today, almost exactly 4 weeks from application date of 3/15, and website still shows "status unavailable."
It will get through the mail system and to being processed much faster and be trackable. I just let my kids' renewals be sent via normal mail from the Post Office where we had the appointment with no special postage and have no idea where it is. Neither does state nor the USPS. Fortunately, we have no international travel expected in the next couple of months. Just checked today, almost exactly 4 weeks from application date of 3/15, and website still shows "status unavailable."