A couple questions here: Does it take any extra time to process my request because I’ve lost my passport and need to report it? There’s a phone number on the state department’s travel site to report a lost passport, so I assume I can get the fact that my passport was lost into the system today.
I realize they’re backed up with passport requests due to the changes in regulations, but normally the turnaround on expedited passports is something like 2 weeks.
I’m willing to pay a reputable 3rd party service extra cash to get it done quicker so that I don’t have to worry about it potentially arriving late. Can anyone recommend a service they’ve used or heard good things about?
I know someone who obtained a passport within a day by going to the Houston regional service center and applying in person. It was a four hour drive to get there, and once there it took all day standing in line, and then four hours driving back. It was IIRC twice as expensive as a regular passport application. But I imagine that’s the fastest possible way.
We applied for a regular passport the day before Thanksgiving last year and had them in our mailbox within three weeks. We did not ask for expediting, since we didn’t plan to use them until this summer at least. The backlog may not be a problem any more.
It may take longer to get a replacement passport instead of a new one.
You might want to call the nearest passport office for advice.
You answered his question, didn’t you?
And you’ve got a wondrous heapin’ helpin’ of optimism regarding getting an answer from a federal agency over the phone.
For a fee, you can submit an expedited request. I don’t really know if you need that, though. We applied for a passport for my son last month, expecting a long wait. We didn’t really need it until July, but figured we would give them as much time as possible. We received it in less than 3 weeks.
Last time I applied, I paid extra for expedited service, and got it within three weeks, but that time is not guaranteed. If you need it within 14 days, you can go to the nearest regional passport agency and talk to them. (Call them first though.)
Apology accepted. I was looking for recent anecdotal experience obtaining passports and advice regarding 3rd party services.
Dopers,
After calling around I was asssured that normal processing was all I needed but I went ahead and expedited the application anyways. My fiancee is nervous and my main concern is relieving a bit of her stress 3 weeks before our wedding. $209 bought some peace of mind, I hope. The post office’s guesstimate is 2 to 3 weeks. If it arrives before the wedding …
(let me backpedal and explain that my fiancee is a teacher and we’re taking our honeymoon when the school year ends)
I paid the regular unexpedited fee, but did enclosed a prepaid express envelope. I got mine (a renewal) in two weeks. I was surprised and my postal person said, they really have the routine down, so she must be used to seeing people get them sooner than they expect.
Because no one said this explicitly, I just want to clarify for any dopers that look at this thread down the line, you should NEVER need a 3rd party service. You should go to/call the regional passport agency like friedo said if you need help dealing with special circumstances. I haven’t heard of any 3rd party expediters, and the idea seems incredibly sketchy.
Actually, there are very reputable 3rd party expediters. I’ve used one, out of Chicago, a couple of times. Granted, I also needed to get visas for my trip, which made the timing even tighter.
What do they offer that I can’t do on my own? Someone to go stand in that line at the passport agency, if I can’t take the time off or don’t live in the correct city. It would cost me a lot more to get to Chicago for a day then it cost to have them do it for me.
Google “passport services” for companies that assist. These companies hire people to stand in line for you in Washington D.C. to get your passport in less than a day.
I got my first one in Boston in less than a day and didn’t have to pay anyone but the passport office itself. It cost more like $200 instead of roughly $100 IIRC but I didn’t have to pull any tricks. Maybe Atlanta is set up for something like that as well.
I lost my passport and had a flight planned for three days later. My choices were either to try to figure the system out myself and stand in line for a day or two trying to get the passport, or send the information to an expediting service for a couple hundred bucks. No brainer to me since I couldn’t get the time off work. I had my passport the next day.
There are reasons why an expediting service makes sense. But if you have the time to wade through the system and stand in lines for a couple days, you probably don’t need a service to help you.
Just had to post our recent experience. We dropped by our local Post Office on Saturday 4/5 to drop off the paperwork and have our photos taken. They said that the feedback they had been receiving from customers was that we should have the passports within 2 weeks or so. We kind of rolled our eyes and said “Right!”.
The passports were delivered to us in the mail on Saturday 4/12.