I'm supposed to be traveling this weekend and just realized my passport has expired. Has anyone had any experience getting a renewal same day or within a day or two?

reedsterg said:

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I'm supposed to be traveling this weekend and just realized my passport has expired. Has anyone had any experience getting a renewal same day or within a day or two?

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If in Houston go to the State Department's office on Smith. It will take a couple hours and cost some $$$ but it can be done.

Call 1-877-487-2778 to schedule an appointment at one of the passport centers. As long as you have travel booked within the next two weeks you can get an appointment (if they have open slots). There are 3 centers in TX - Houston, DFW, and El Paso. Good luck.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/get-fast/passport-agencies.html

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What these guys said. I believe there are also companies that can help but they are pretty damn pricey. If you have time, do it yourself. Be sure to have travel docs (proof of travel) during your appointment. The website will give you all the info. I did it a few years ago and it wasn't that bad.

I heard that they no longer accept walk-in's since covid started, but I cannot confirm that. My story of a similar situation:

We realized my son's passport was expired 3 days before travel. This was about 4 years ago (pre-covid). We checked all passport centers in the state for an open ppointment and nothing was available. My wife, son, and I went to the Houston passport office the next morning without an appointment and waited in a line until they opened. At 8am, they separated people with/without appointments. We saw an agent around 10am and had his renewed passport later that same afternoon.

We were pleasantly surprised by how nice and accomodating all of the people at the passport office were. They did a really good job keeping the anxious and stressed crowd calm throughout the day.

No more walk ins. They don't exist anymore. You'll need to put it in as expedited and then call to get a reservations if any are available (that's the whole US not just your location).

Best bet is to call congressman's office for a congressional appointment. Otherwise you're fd.

If you don't have an appointment code they won't let you in the processing area.

The ONLY way to get that at this point is through a federal official like your congressman making you an appt. They do it all the time. Just call or email their office and relay what you wrote above.

Just went through this scenario with my wife's passport. We're leaving for our honeymoon at the end of the month and although her passport is valid another 5 months, one of the countries we're travelling to wants 6 months validity (didnt realize this mattered). We sent off the application in February (paid for the expedite and express shipping back), then get an email the week before last saying the application was missing. Initially I was thinking we're still fine but then I start reading online and see how long some people have waited lately, and got extremely worried it wouldnt arrive in time at this point.

They just recently changed the process a bit. If you havent applied, you can try to make an in-person appointment within 14 days of travel. If you've already applied, you cant try to make an appointment until you're within 5 days (assuming theres any appointments available), but once youre at 14 days you can call and theyll put through an internal rush request to the location processing your application to try to make sure its sent in time.

To move up that timeline, I went ahead and booked a refundable ticket to Mexico and then we were able to call to have the internal rush request submitted and a few days later called to make an in-person appointment (only openings were El Paso and Vermont). I also emailed the senators and local congressmens offices and they put in inquiries on our behalf.

We were about to have to drive the 8 hours each way to El Paso and the day before the appointment the application approved and shipped and just got it yesterday.

Thanks everyone for the info. I tried calling to schedule an appointment and there aren't any available. Would my only shot be to call/email my congressman to see if they can schedule an appointment for me?

I'd definitely try that but also call every day too to see if any appointments opened up from cancellations. There were no appointments anywhere at all or none nearby?

Yup they can fast track you in asap.

Update: Wesley Hunt's office got me a 7:30am appointment this morning and I go pick up my new passport this afternoon.

We're in the same situation and I'm planning on the refundable ticket approach. Did you have to provide proof of lodging/hotel or was the confirmed flight details good enough to get the expedite approvals?

Just a screenshot of the flight was all they required.

For their internal expedite (where they send a message to the processing location) and to book an appointment when youre within the 5 day window, they actually didnt even require any proof - but when you get to your appointment you'll have to show proof of either a flight or hotel booking (you could be driving across the border so either will work).

JustPanda said:

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If you don't have an appointment code they won't let you in the processing area.

The ONLY way to get that at this point is through a federal official like your congressman making you an appt. They do it all the time. Just call or email their office and relay what you wrote above.

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This is the exact correct answer. Just went through it recently.

One of my wife's friends is traveling to England on Tuesday, submitted her application in Feb and still hasn't gotten in back. Apparently spent the day on the phone with Wesley hunts office on Friday.

I had assumed that from the last few down times I've seen this come up on Texags you could show up at the federal building at 6 am and sweat out an appointment. Is that not the case anymore?

They don't do walk-ins at the passport offices any longer. You have to call the 800 number and get an appointment and then show up with proof of near-term travel.

She spent 3 hours on the phone with the 800 number yesterday and still couldn't get an appointment

Was Wesley Hunt's office able to help? Did she fill out the online request? I can pm you the contact of the person I worked with if you'd like.

reedsterg said:

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Was Wesley Hunt's office able to help? Did she fill out the online request? I can pm you the contact of the person I worked with if you'd like.

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Hunts office wasn't able to help but I'd love to share any help I can. It's my wife's teacher friend and they've saved a long time for this trip.

Sent

Does she live in Hunt's district? She needs to go through her elected representative. Odd that they couldn't help her. The only reason I can think is that they office is legit full or she doesn't live in his district.

JustPanda said:

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Does she live in Hunt's district? She needs to go through her elected representative. Odd that they couldn't help her. The only reason I can think is that they office is legit full or she doesn't live in his district.

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She does. I think there might not be any slots available anywhere in thr country. She expedited the renewal and I can't belive it isn't done in 4 months.

I feel for you.

My wife just did her same day passport at the Tuscon office on Thursday. It was pretty seemless other than having to wait until 3pm to pick up. There were a lot of people there. They wouldn't let anyone through the door if they didn't have an appointment. Several people were sitting on the steps outside on the phone trying to get an appointment.

Wow. I've never heard of them having an issue pushing someone in for a congressional appointment. That's f'n brutal.

Ok so weird other thinking - she may owe something to disqualifies her from holding a passport. Back child support, etc. I know that sounds weird but she may not be eligible. Not sure how well you know her but that may be an issue. I had a friend that wasn't eligible and didn't know about it until almost a month before traveling. It took 2 weeks to be removed from the Federal list after the state notified them he was cleared and then he was one week out from travel and had to get his congressman to get him into get the physical passport. Crazy amounts of work and he submitted his 6 months prior to travel. Mind blowing.

They canceled their trip.