Passports are obtained
through the Passport Services Division of the Department of State. Through your
local passport acceptance agent (usually the Post Office or county courthouse)
you can apply for a new passport, renew your old one, replace
a lost, stolen, or damaged passport, or add new pages to your existing book.
To locate your nearest
Passport Agency, please click HERE.
What You Will
Need:
- Certified birth certificate (must have a registrar's
raised, embossed, impressed or multicolored seal, registrar's signature,
and the date the certificate was filed with the registrar's office, which
must be within 1 year of your birth)
- Photo Identification (Driver's license,
Government ID: city, state or federal or Military ID: military and
dependents )
- 2 identical photographs (2 x 2 in. taken within the
last 6 months must be of your full face and taken on a white or off-white
background - color or black and white acceptable)
- Social Security Number
- Passport Application (also available at a Passport
agency or online)
Fees:
- $55 - Processing Fee
- $30 - Application Fee
- $60 - Expedite Fee
Traveling
Overseas
Once you have your passport, you still have to check with the country or
countries you'll be visiting to determine
whether or not you'll need a visa. A visa is permission from a country to
cross their borders and comes in the form of a page inserted in your U.S.
Passport. You usually have to mail your passport to the Embassy or Consulate of
the country you'll be visiting, so allow plenty of time to accomplish this.
Also, check the State
Department Web site for travel
warnings and consular information sheets that provide very helpful
information about the country you plan on visiting. The State
Department Web site also contains very comprehensive information on all the
services it provides both stateside and abroad. This includes crisis
assistance for U.S.
citizens living or traveling abroad, and various travel publications available
online.
American Embassies and Consulates
General
Many U.S. Diplomatic Missions abroad have information online. For those that
don't, check the State
Department's Key Officers of Foreign Service Posts for addresses, and phone
and fax numbers for U.S. Embassies and Consulates throughout the world.
Passports in a
Hurry
Passports usually take from 30 to 40 days to issue. For a $60.00 fee -- plus
the cost of 2-way overnight mail -- you can "expedite" this process
and receive your passport in 7 to 10 working days.
Please contact our DC
office at 202-225-4311 if you need your passport sooner than 7 to 10 days.
Privacy Release Form
When requesting information it is sometimes necessary to provide a privacy
release form to give us access to retrieve your information. Please download
this form, fill it out, sign and mail to the appropriate location.
|