Aug 30, 2007
Need a passport? Fast? Go to a city with a smaller backlog
We learned something this week about the backlog in processing applications for U.S. passports: it differs from city to city. In New York and Boston, for instance, the lag may be as long as a month; yet in Philadelphia, the lag is less than a week to people who pay an expediting fee. By being willing to travel to a city whose regional passport office has a shorter backlog, you can often obtain your passport in just a few days.
That was the recent experience of a relative of ours. Her company needed her to fly to Toronto -- two weeks from now. Yet her U.S. passport had expired (and passports are now required of people flying to and from Canada). She called the passport offices in New York and Boston, but with no luck -- they would need three weeks. She then called the passport office in Philadelphia and was told that if she went there on a Tuesday morning, they would have her passport later that afternoon. Though it was a hardship to make that trip, she had no choice.
So if you can't obtain a timely passport, phone around. In fact, the central passport information office (known as the National Passport Information Center), reached at 1-877-4USA-PPT (1-877-487-2778) may know of a nearby passport office able to quickly issue your passport. And if you're willing to go to that other city, you can often shorten the necessary time -- and shorten it dramatically.
(A final hint: people without a touch tone phone are eventually able to speak with a human being at the National Passport Information Center. And these humans often have good information to impart).
Write and read comments about this post.
That was the recent experience of a relative of ours. Her company needed her to fly to Toronto -- two weeks from now. Yet her U.S. passport had expired (and passports are now required of people flying to and from Canada). She called the passport offices in New York and Boston, but with no luck -- they would need three weeks. She then called the passport office in Philadelphia and was told that if she went there on a Tuesday morning, they would have her passport later that afternoon. Though it was a hardship to make that trip, she had no choice.
So if you can't obtain a timely passport, phone around. In fact, the central passport information office (known as the National Passport Information Center), reached at 1-877-4USA-PPT (1-877-487-2778) may know of a nearby passport office able to quickly issue your passport. And if you're willing to go to that other city, you can often shorten the necessary time -- and shorten it dramatically.
(A final hint: people without a touch tone phone are eventually able to speak with a human being at the National Passport Information Center. And these humans often have good information to impart).
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: passports
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
