Does anybody have any super secrets and how to get a last minute passport? My daughter applied for expedited service back in early February and we still don’t have it, and we are leaving next Saturday for Cabo, for our anniversary trip. She has spent hours on the phone each day on hold, waiting for someone to talk to, with zero results, even paying for the extra extra expedited service with no results. Tomorrow she will be calling to see if she can get an appointment, but apparently appointments are not very easy to get. Anybody have a connection for me? Anyone work in the US passport office?
15 weeks on expedited still none? Ohhh fff.
We applied early March with regular (because geez lots of time) And need it in a couple month. Ffffff
Sorry to hear. No connection but fingers crossed!
Make an appointment with the passport agency and then call your congressperson’s office and ask their constituent affairs aide for help.
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yeah, that’s on the schedule if she fails tomorrow - apparently the passport agency has limited appointments but, magically, local congressperson’s offices find them. Good to know exactly who to ask for, thanks
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I wouldn’t recommend it, but I flew to Cabo with an expired passport a couple of decades ago, and they let the through with a shrug. Pre-911, so I think things have changed
Worked once for us:
Keep looking for odd places for the appointment and you may find an out of the way spot, even if it takes a domestic trip go get it done!
Oh, man, best wishes.
Must be stuck in the system. We renewed ours recently, applied end of March and received the new one yesterday. Wife did hers in late January, got it first week in April
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Right before the pandemic officially began we took a trip to Spain. When we went to check in for our flight they said my wife couldn’t board because there were not enough remaining days on her existing passport beyond our return date. We rebooked our flight for the next day and we literally just walked up to the passport office in downtown Dallas first thing the next morning and right at opening they took only those in line leaving within 24 hours. We had a replacement passport by 3 PM that day and were on our flight by 7 PM. I don’t know if they still allow this with all the backups but back then there was a work around for last minute glitches.
I dealt with this recently. Applied online for passport renewal on travel.state.gov new system and it took about 11-12 weeks with regular processing. Even though there are numerous 3rd party agencies that can expedite a passport renewal, in some cases within 24 hours, I didn’t qualify for those because my passport was already being renewed. Also was told that paying for expedited service after submitting the original application, resets the application process back to week 0. You can still get an expedited passport through the state as long as your travel date is within 2 weeks, just have her call the passport renewal number and say she needs an emergency passport granted because of impending travel with itinerary in hand. As you’ve hinted hopefully they have an appointment before the travel date - but they should be able to issue within 48 hours. Good luck!
As a US citizen, can’t she fly/go to Cabo on a driver’s license and a secondary document (original birth certificate)? I know that used to be the case, but haven’t been to Mexico in a few years…
hey @ToddFrench , when you go online to track it, what does it say?
“Processing”? or “Approved” (but waiting for it to print/arrive)
Unfortunately not, not anymore
“Processing”
UPDATE: Once the offices opened, my daughter went to work on our local Senator and Representative - they were immediately responsive and she has a number of forms filled out after speaking to a number of friendly voices. Hopefully this will seal the deal…
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Passport wait times are very seasonal. This is the worst time, everyone plans travel in the summer. Mid-winter is generally the best time.
I had something similar, I didn’t realize that the last couple of blank pages of your passport don’t count as blank pages for regular purposes, drove to downtown la and back twice from home (45 miles away).
I was shocked that the federal government can do something the same say.
Not sure if they stil do it, but the fallback is to go downtown passport office - well before opening, I got there at 7am.
Remember she applied in February
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If you don’t hear anything on Monday, I do strongly recommend contacting the people I linked above. You engage them on your behalf to do a personal appointment and they can have 24 hr turnaround. It isn’t cheap, but is a huge help. I used them last year on the recommendation of someone else here on WB.
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I have gotten a passport in NYC in 24 hours. There are lots of services that do this. It is not cheap around $500. I am guessing there are similar ones in LA.
It was a wild process and the one I used clearly had people on the take.
Monday’s a holiday so we won’t hear anything, and my daughter did get responses from both our Rep and Senator’s offices and filled in forms, each created a case for her and has been responsive throughout. I might have to look at the company you posted above on Wednesday if nothing happens with the constituents’ affairs aides
Called them, they can’t help for applications sent directly to the State department, those waiting in the vapor - they can only help those they initiate
Gonna be full court press the next two days with our Federal Rep and Senator, and might have to tap into the state congresspeople as well, though one we called 6 times with no answer or reply (the Federal congresspeople’s offices responded instantly and put a case worker on it, but nothing yet)