Help!!!

Wow I am surprised no one told you that your passport must have a 6 months window.

You may be able to get an extension but I am sure it will cost you.. Good luck!

You can try for an expedited renewal. I don't know how long that will take. Passports for Italy must be valid at least 3 months beyond the planned departure.

Donna

Bless your heart. Come back to this site to let us know what happens. Best of luck.

My brother was able to get an updated passport (to replace the one he had lost) in less than 24 hours, maybe even less than 8 hours, at the Minneapolis passport office. Good luck!

There is no way to extend the validity of an existing passport; you need to renew. You can get an expedited renewal in 24-48 hours but you must CALL and make an appointment at the passport office---standing in line at 8:30 will not do it.

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/services/expedited.html

You need to provide proof of immediate travel to qualify. Since there is no way you will make the flight to Italy tomorrow (7/7), you should act now to change the flight to two days later. ( or later depending on when you are able to get a passport appointment). Yes that will cost you $$$. The expedited renewal, if you do it yourself instead of using a commercial service, is $60 plus the regular renewal fee.

Bring passport photos, a filled-out form, your old passport, and confirmation of your flight date to the appointment.

And good luck to you.

You should be able to get expedited processing of your Passport, but I'm sure there will be an extra charge for that. I'd be interested to know if you're successful.

Good luck and (hopefully) happy travels!

Also, you should remove your private email from your message ( use the "edit" button while logged in). You will get lots of spam that way. People can still send you a PM using the system provided by this website.

You can use the "more" button under "Expedited service at a Passport Agency" for more information. The number to call for an appointment is 1-877-487-2778 or 1-888-874-7793.

Charge your phone at the first opportunity! There should be someplace in the Chicago airport to do this while you are making the call.

Don't feel too bad. You are not the first one who checks there passport as the last item on the to do list. If you can get into the Chicago office, they probably can turn it around that day. We got a frist passport in person in less than six hours from the Chicago office but that was a long time ago.

As a caution to everyone else, the first thing you should check is your passport expiration date. We had a posting here from someone who was looking for their passport on the day before they were scheduled to depart and could not find it. They always knew where it was but it wasn't.

Good luck.

I'm from Chicago and my mom had the same problem while checking in at ORD. We pushed the flight back a day. We hightailed it to the federal building downtown that afternoon filled out the necessary paperwork and had our passport in a few hours. Note that the office was pretty dead though. As another poster said, make sure you bring a copy of your itinerary as proof that it is an emergency (as you will have to show this to the guard as to why you don't have an appointment) and get a passport photo at your local Walgreens to bring with you. An appointment is not necessary if your flight is that day. Buon viaggio!

I am assuming you changed your itinerary to leave from Texas a day earlier. If you did not change your itinerary and you just caught another flight (or maybe drove?), let the airline know you will not be on the initial leg of your flight. If they are expecting you to show up and you don't, they may cancel your whole itinerary.

Good luck! I hope everything works out.

Amazing that United didn't catch this earlier since they require passport number and expiration date on the reservation (I just checkled my file on next spring's flight. ) Guess their system needs some tweaks too.

Sheila, hope you can get passport worked out tomorrow and airline changes / accommodation notification so the rest of your trip will be great.

I was able to get a same-day passport renewal by going to the San Francisco office a year ago with appropriate documentation, including airline ticket. I expect Chicago would offer the same service.

You might check their website and see if you can make an appointment for tomorrow. Otherwise, show up very early, before opening time – I would guess the line may be long, and the earlier you start, the better chance of getting it the same day.

I hope all goes well.

PS. FWIW, the passport office is right off the blue line train stop which will take you directly to O'Hare.

You will need a new passport, it can be done, it may take several hours. Take your airline tickets, hotel reservations, anything that shows your itinerary. Best of luck and please post again.

Was anyone private messaging with the OP and knows more about the outcome? I am hoping we haven't heard back because she had a very efficient morning and was able to make her flight.

Kristen,

Yes, hopefully it all worked out well (fingers crossed).

Yep, I was PMing with her but not yesterday. Everything is crossed that the eagle has flown!

Where is the like button? Very good to hear.

pfresh3, none of us have heard from her yet but we're hoping that no news is good news.

This would be such an easy oversight, and maybe even more so for regular travellers. An international flight attendant friend of mine got caught out once like this and was prevented from working the trip. I hope the traveller is sleeping off their anxiety somewhere over the Atlantic by now.

I don't usually think about reminding first-timers to Europe of the date thing as I always assume their passports are new. But they could have had them awhile for cruises, trips to Mexico or Canada, etc, so never assume! Guess it's another one of those reminders to add to the list along with calling the bank, the CC company...

Petticoatpoms,

I hope you got your (expedited) new passport & can salvage most of your trip...

I didn't check my passport until a few weeks before for a European trip a few years ago. It was expired and I needed to spring into action! Fortunately, I was able to renew it in Detroit (30 miles away from me) without much of a problem but it was stressful. I had taken an overseas trip two years before and just didn't think about it. It's a good lesson to anyone who travels abroad - always check your passport well ahead of time. Hopefully this outcome is good!

Received a brief pm from original poster.

So thankful, so very, very thankful it worked out!
Sheila

That is good news to hear!!!

UP DATE!!! We made it-- a day and a half late and several dollars short, but we made it!
I knew my passport expired in late
Sept. But I never knew about it prohibiting travel 3 months till expiration. It seems to me an expiration date should be an expiration date or why have it? Yes, if I had but known and been and experiences traveler. or if United had caught it, that would have solved all the trouble. Chalk one up for learning the hard way :/
We went ahead and flew to Chicago as planned in our layover. Howeve it wasn't the 1 hr layover, but 1 day :) United didn't charge me for pushing our connection flight to Rome out one full day. I had a friend at home doing work on phone and web so I could figure out what to do. I had United print out our new tickets showing paid. THAT was a HUGE help in saving us!
Do NOT depend on an appointemt. The soonest appointment I could get was 2 weeks out! Even for an emergency renewal! I took a slight hint from the woman on the phone at the state offices, "I'm sorry mam, but all our apts are full. We can get you in next week."
"So what am I to do?"
"Well the caller before you had a similar problem. He said apt. or no apt. he was going to go to the Chic. passport office."
"Are they going to let him in?"
"I don't know, Mam, we can't advise you."
"So if I was your daughter/mother/sister, what would you advise me?"
(Chuckle) "Our calls are monitored, mam, I'm sorry. I can't advise you."
Hmmmm... "Do you like broccoli?"
"What?"
"I was just curious if you LIKED broccoli?... And spinach?"
(Chuckle) "Yes!"
Soooo I showed up at 8:00 am sharp with NO apt. Those without an apt. We're pulled from the literally 70+ In line and put in a different line. Then, in about an hour, those with no apt. were weeded down to "emergency renewal" status based on proof of travel. They saw my tickets and that was the key! The second major thing was to have the necessary documents filled out and in hand. (The gift made possible by my friend back home who sent it tour hotel as a PDF so I could print it.) I was out of the passport office by 3:30pm (ugh) and at the airport in time for our 6:30 pm flight to Rome. Whew.

It was a long day but we handled it in stride. So glad to be here finally. Thank you for all the concern and suggestions! Bless this group!
Sheila

Kathy,
All your info on notifying my bank and credit cards was also key info is have not known. Those tips saved us much grief.

You are right to also assume most new travelers have new passports. I think we are the rare exception since I have 5 international adoptions (none of which I travelled for) and we got each child a passport as it is a great way to prove citizenship. When we got the first child's, we got them for the rest of the family. We just kept adding them as our family grew :) Our first adoption was nearly 10 years ago; hence, mine was about to expire.
It's new now, hahhaha!

I got a good laugh out of the comment from the poster who said, "This eagle has flown."

Thank you again everyone!
Sheila

Awesome!!!

Sheila,

Thanks for the update. It's great to hear that it all worked out for you!

Enjoy your trip!

Just curious, were you served broccoli and spinach on the flight?

got a good laugh out of the comment from the poster who said, "This eagle has flown.

LOL, that was me. And I am very, very glad to hear that she did!
I will also try very, very hard to remember to remind excited travelers to check their passports.
Hope Italy is proving to be worth every bit of what it has taken you to get there!

Sheila, that is wonderful! Thrilled to hear the trip is a go. Thank you for the update. Safe and happy travels to you and your family.

Well, Sheila, you should be home now: we're dying to hear how the rest of that trip went??!!

Hi Kathy,

Off to tackle it! I'll start a new thread with it :)

Hi Kathy,

Off to tackle it! I'll start a new thread with it :)