Passport Question

Don't know when you're planning to travel, but if you need the passport within 14 days you have to go to a passport agency -- not the post office. Expedited service and what you get at a passport agency are NOT the same thing.

Right now, applications are reported to be at record lows, so you have a good chance at getting one quickly. My dad applied for one just after Christmas (a year ago) and got it by mid-January, so they can be quite fast.

However, if you are leaving in less than a month, Marco's suggestion of traveling up to the passport agency is the way to go.

You can up to date information at:
http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738_2.html

best bet is to go to a passport agency. closest one to you is in Seattle:

http://www.travel.state.gov/passport/about/agencies/agencies_901.html

good luck!

You both must apply in person. Either at a Post Office accepting passport applicaitons or at a Passport Agency.

When applying, you can ask for an expedited passport. There is an extra fee for that service.

The website Jeff mentioned in his post will answer all your questions.

I hope that you are not planning to use the airline tickets that the other couple had purchased (assuming that they have already purchased their tickets). The first and last name on your passport must match the first and last name on the airline ticket. If not, the airline won't let you board. Middle names/initials don't matter. Just thought I would warn you.

Thanks for all of the great info! We haven't bought plane tickets yet - so we'll be able to book them with our names. The couple we'd be travelling with have purchased their tickets for exactly one month from today. The other couple cancelled their tickets with the airline.

I've made an appointment for us at a passport office here in Portland. According to the government passport website, they can currently turn around expedited passports in 14 days "door to door." They also said that if, within 7 days of your trip, you haven't received it to give them a call and they'll get it to you. They actually say on their site that they "won't make you miss your trip." I hope that's true!

Our appointments are on Monday. We'll go down there and see what they say before we purchase our tickets. That's the hard part - I want to buy them now!!

Under the world has change a lot column, would anyone believe that we got our first passport in 72 in less than four hours? That was before we had computers to speed things up. Never again.

Jennifer...you said you have an appointment with a "passport office" in Portland. Is that a government office or a company you pay to get you a passport?

These are the only official passport offices in Portland:

Facility Name Street Address City State ZIP Code Public Phone

City of Portland Treasury 1221 SW 4th Ave., Room 120 Portland OR 97204 (503) 823-3103

Multnomah County Elections 1040 SE Morrison St. Passport Section Portland OR 97214-2495 (503) 988-4508

USPO - Portland (Main Office) 715 NW Hoyt St. Portland OR 97208-9998 (503) 294-2399

USPS - East Portland Station 1020 SE Seventh Ave. Portland OR 97214-9998 (503) 234-6182

USPS - Midway Postal Store 400 SE 103rd Drive Portland OR 97292 (503) 251-2609

USPS - Multnomah Station 7805 SW 40th Avenue Portland OR 97219 (800) 275-8777

USPS - Portland AMF 7640 NE Airport Way Portland OR 97238 (503) 335-7936

USPS - University Station 1505 SW Sixth Ave. Portland OR 97201-9998 (503) 274-1362

Thanks for the info, Frank. Our appt's are at the USPS passport office in SE Portland. I looked at the expedited passport websites and was a little afraid to a.) pay hundreds of dollars, and b.) send my original birth certificate to some company I've never heard of. With my luck, I'd never see it again and find out that several cars and houses were purchased in my name. Eek!

Forgot to say thanks again for all of the helpful info!

Tickets just dropped again - it's killing me to wait.

Jennifer, you'll still have to submit an official birth certificate (the county one, not the hospital one) with your passport application. They will mail it back to you in a separate mailing from your passport.

I really wouldn't advise waiting to book your tickets until you have passports in hand. The closer you book to your departure date, the more the tickets are likely to cost. If you see a good deal now, I'd grab it.

We got ours about two months ago and they came in less than a week. We went to our local post office. You birth certificates go with the application and are returned. Ours came in the mail the day before the passports came in.

My daughter applied for hers last year at the post office. She didn't expedite it and it arrived in less than two weeks.