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 14, 2021 | 10:05 am
#1126
Join Date: Apr 2021
Posts: 3
contact your senator or Congressional representative, they all have a constituent services office that deals only with passport applications. Tell them what happened and you will see that your application will magically turn up. Your application is there and you can prove that with your tracking number, so don't let them off the hook that easily
Apr 14, 2021 | 12:58 pm
#1127
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 88
Everyone who is calling in for expediting is getting their passports done in the next day or two so your senator actually did NOT do anything. Had they called it in citing you sent them in on 1/15 and they were stuck and NOT processed and therefore you need your passports without paying for expediting, then I'd believe your senator's office did anything for you.
Last edited by dvpatel; Apr 14, 2021 at 1:04 pm
Apr 14, 2021 | 4:52 pm
#1128
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Klagetoh
Posts: 24,122
Im sure its more incompetence/sloth than malice.
Apr 14, 2021 | 5:55 pm
#1129
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: WAS
Programs: enjoyed being warm spit for a few years on CO/UA but now nothing :(
Posts: 2,817
Apr 14, 2021 | 5:59 pm
#1130
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: WAS
Programs: enjoyed being warm spit for a few years on CO/UA but now nothing :(
Posts: 2,817
Was your renewal application for your minor children? Because that is the specific situation I am referring to.
Apr 14, 2021 | 8:55 pm
#1131
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 88
Yup. Incompetence. I get that with COVID, there are fewer employees and it would take longer than the usual 3 - 4 weeks. BUT. Why are the applications taking weeks to show up in the system and then 10 - 12 weeks on top? And if they indeed have low staffing levels, then as soon as you fork over the money, how is the passport getting approved, printed and mailed out in a mere day? Seems like they wait for you to break and pay and then its immediately processed.
Apr 14, 2021 | 11:01 pm
#1132
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Klagetoh
Posts: 24,122
The DS-82 instructions state "Because of the sensitivity of the enclosed documents, Passport Services recommends using trackable mailing service when submitting your application." I don't see that bit of advice in the DS-11 instructions. Was the cost of mailing included in the acceptance fee or did you have to pay that separately?
Apr 15, 2021 | 1:49 am
#1133
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
Yup. Incompetence. I get that with COVID, there are fewer employees and it would take longer than the usual 3 - 4 weeks. BUT. Why are the applications taking weeks to show up in the system and then 10 - 12 weeks on top? And if they indeed have low staffing levels, then as soon as you fork over the money, how is the passport getting approved, printed and mailed out in a mere day? Seems like they wait for you to break and pay and then its immediately processed.
Apr 15, 2021 | 5:12 am
#1134
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 88
The online status updating for what's going on with US passport applications has always been weak in various ways IME. And the cost to do the fixes to make it wholly accurate would possibly come with an increase in passport fees because of it and even slower processing times.
Apr 15, 2021 | 5:42 am
#1135
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Miami, Florida
Posts: 22
Not talking about status updates. Just showing the application as received/processing like it shows today. Why does a person's application which was mailed on 1/15 take till late March to even show up in the system? And why it 10 - 12 weeks after that? Aren't the 10 - 12 weeks including transit times?
Apr 15, 2021 | 5:52 am
#1136
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Miami, Florida
Posts: 22
I've learned from a very friendly agent at the NPIC how the process works which just adds to the ridiculousness and incompetence of the state department. The so called PO boxes where you mail your first time passport and passport renewal applications are nothing more than mailing facilities operating exclusively for the state department and are not open to the public. They have weeks if not months worth of applications there waiting to be opened and scanned into the system. Once your application is scanned into the system it is sent to a passport agency to be processed such as Charleston South Carolina, Minneapolis, New Hampshire etc etc. The actual processing since you are talking about an electronic image and file can be done in a matter of minutes, that is the reason why those who get their senators involved get their passports in a matter of 12 to 24 hours in some cases. So as you can see, if it weren't for the incompetence of the state department things realistically should not take more than 2 to 3 weeks but in reality 10 to 12 weeks is the norm, the system definitely needs a change
Apr 15, 2021 | 7:12 am
#1137
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: NYC
Programs: AA 2MM, Bonvoy LTT, Hilton Gold
Posts: 15,009
No. I don'r have any children that I'm aware of.
The DS-82 instructions state "Because of the sensitivity of the enclosed documents, Passport Services recommends using trackable mailing service when submitting your application." I don't see that bit of advice in the DS-11 instructions. Was the cost of mailing included in the acceptance fee or did you have to pay that separately?
The DS-82 instructions state "Because of the sensitivity of the enclosed documents, Passport Services recommends using trackable mailing service when submitting your application." I don't see that bit of advice in the DS-11 instructions. Was the cost of mailing included in the acceptance fee or did you have to pay that separately?
Acceptance agent sent the application in. Dont know where they sent to or by what method or whether they sent everything they get in a single consolidated shipment or individual.
Apr 15, 2021 | 7:30 am
#1138
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Klagetoh
Posts: 24,122
The online status updating for what's going on with US passport applications has always been weak in various ways IME. And the cost to do the fixes to make it wholly accurate would possibly come with an increase in passport fees because of it and even slower processing times.
Your item departed our PHILADELPHIA PA DISTRIBUTION CENTER destination facility on February 8, 2021 at 10:54 am. The item is currently in transit to the destination.
As do replacements for adult passports that were lost, stolen, or washed away in a hurricane storm surge, as I unfortunately know. I just couldnt remember if I dropped the application in the mail back in March, 2011 or the acceptance agent at the Holbrook AZ post office did it for me.
Apr 15, 2021 | 7:50 am
#1139
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: NYC
Programs: AA 2MM, Bonvoy LTT, Hilton Gold
Posts: 15,009
As do replacements for adult passports that were lost, stolen, or washed away in a hurricane storm surge, as I unfortunately know. I just couldnt remember if I dropped the application in the mail back in March, 2011 or the acceptance agent at the Holbrook AZ post office did it for me.
Apr 15, 2021 | 7:56 am
#1140
Join Date: Apr 2021
Location: Miami, Florida
Posts: 22
Applications that are handed into an acceptance facility such as the post office are mailed by the post office directly, you play no role in mailing them and they are usually mailed in a package together with all of the other applications collected during the day