Well, husband has not been able to find his passport and is planning to use a service here in Los Angeles that will go to the State department for him and wait in line all day to get it.

Has anyone had experience with such a company? Good, bad, or otherwise?

Hi es,

Shame on him.

How much time until you leave.

You can get 2-week expedited service from the Passport Office for $60.

In a real crunch, call your member of Congress. It's an election year.

It's my understanding that the "waiting in line all day" process is a thing of the past, and they work by appointments in emergency situations. As Ira mentioned, they do offer an expidited service where you could get your passport very quickly with no middleman. Have you checked into this? If not, here's the scoop:

http://travel.state.gov/passport/get...first_831.html

<i>IMPORTANT NOTICES

If your still valid passport was lost or stolen, please submit the DS-64 form with the DS-11 application when you apply for a replacement at a Passport Agency or Acceptance Facility. <b>NOTE: You must appear in person.</b>
The information you provide on the DS-64, Statement Regarding a Lost or Stolen Passport will be entered in our Consular Lost/Stolen Passport System.
Passports reported lost or stolen are invalidated and can no longer be used for travel.
If you recover the passport after you have reported it lost or stolen, please submit it to the address listed above. When you submit it, if requested - we will cancel it and return it to you. If not requested, it will be destroyed.
Once a passport is reported lost or stolen, it cannot be re-validated.</i>

AAFF, is there anything you don't know?? Here's a link to that page so you can download the necessary forms:

http://travel.state.gov/passport/lost/us/us_848.html

AAFF, you know I'm kidding. When it comes to stuff like this you are da man!!

Thanks for the compliment, but actually I got that from your link above. I just remembered that I read this before, so I searched around the USSD site and found it.

Weel, time for an update-I had read the Dept of State website and had understood that one could no longer go in person to expedite the passport-you can, but need an appointment. He spent about twenty minutes there this morning and can pick up the passport Tuesday morning. A darned good thing, since our flight leaves Friday!