tarocake

I have an appt. with the official passport agency this week. How long does it take for them to add new pages to my passport or renew the passport?

I've checked on their site and it does not say. CUrious so I can decide whether to book the plane ticket now (I"m leaving in a few days for a trip that requires a visa)

thanks

Patty

I'm somewhat confused by your post. You say that you're leaving in a few days for a trip that requires a visa. Is this the same trip that you need to renew or add pages to your passport for? And you still need to get the visa? Or is that a different trip and you're just wondering how long they need to keep your passport because you need to get it back in time to get a visa for this trip?

Technically with the expedited service for $60 additional, it's a 72 hour turnaround. But if you have an emergency, they can have it ready the following day (perhaps even the same day). You'll need to explain your situation and it's also good to bring along whatever documentation you have like tickets, etc. to show that it's very urgent. If you don't want to go back for a second trip to pick it up, you can provide a prepaid overnight envelope/label and they'll send it back to you.

crys

I'm with Patty. If you still need to get your visa, you are cutting it quite thin. Even paying the expedite fee for your passport, you then have to get the visa in it, and I can't think of many countries that will turn that around in a matter of a few days. Or do you already have your visa, and just need to make sure you have your passport back in time for the trip?

Marilyn

I once had pages added to my passport in an emergency at the Bangkok American Embassy. It took them about 10 minutes. Don't know if you will get the same helpful service here in the US, but they CAN do it if they want to. I think renewing it would take longer.

nibblette

You may be able to find a service that can get an expedited passport renewal and visa for you. I did this for a visa alone (24 hr turnaround time and the passport was hand-delivered to me). It does cost A LOT of money though.
Like Patty said, if you have to get your passport very very quickly, you will have to have documentation to demonstrate need (plane tickets).

tarocake

thanks. to clarify: I have the appt. with the US passport agency this Monday; I fly out this Friday. The foreign visa I can get in 1 day.

Hopefully the passport agency will be able add pages to my passport within a day. It seems simple; hopefully the passport agency is not a bloated bureaucracy.

Patty

If you have an appt for today and you don't leave until Friday, that should give you enough time. They've processed a passport renewal for me at the Los Angeles agency for the following business day, adding extra pages should be even quicker. Let us know what happens.

tarocake

Hi Patty,

I just came back from my morning appt. and I'm getting the passport (a renewal) the NEXT day at 2PM. so I'm a happy camper. that will give me enough time to get my visa for my Friday departure.

It took an 1 hr for the whole process (once u get up to the window, it's very quick).

For those who are in the same dilemna, the hardest part is getting the appt., once u get the appt., they can process the passport pretty quickly. I overheard some folks getting theirs the same day for extreme emergencies.