How to get a fast passport without paying a million dollars!

You can expedite a passport for only about an extra $65 if I remember correctly. I did that a couple of years ago before a trip to Italy and had it within 2 weeks or so.

@theladebug – wow!! thats EXACTLY what i need!! whats the steps to do that? how do i do that?

They will handle it for you at the post office. Many post offices will even take your picture for you for another $10—$15 so you dont have to do it elsewhere. Got to http://usps.whitepages.com/post_office (post office find a location page) and type in your address (be sure to choose “Passport Application Services” from the drop down list. It will tell you which locations offer passport services. You might call ahead to make sure they do photos at that location (or you can get that done ahead of time at walgreens or somewhere like that)

wow, thanks!! that was excellent! one more question, so what was your total cost for the passport that fast? was it over $200?

I want to say it was less that $150, maybe $125, its been awhile though… and I am starting to get old.. :)

lol, thats still a little rough :( only because the reason i need one is because im (potentially) flying to London, which will cost around $950 round trip, and getting tickets for a concert ($150) so ANOTHER $150 for a passport is just another annoying fee!! i hate government!! lol. thanks tho!

yes yes but they are good for a long time so its not like you need to renew it every couple of years :) Its a good investment to make because who knows when you might have another chance to travel somewhere really cool.

Actually I re-read your post and I dont think you would need to expedite it to get within 3 mos. You should have plenty of time to get one without expediting.

And next time you will have it already handled :)

what exactly does expedite mean?

My passport in ‘99 was 65$. Having them fast track it doubled that amount. Mine is/was good for ten years. I had them do it normally. It took about a month to get it.

Expedite is like one day shipping at Amazon. It is just faster.

Oh that just means that if you pay them more money they will do it faster :)

Here is a link to fees for passports, it looks like they have gone up a bit since i got mine.

http://www.usps.com/passport/

ok guys. thanks a lot! i appreciate the info!

I thought it usually takes 6 weeks.

@AlfredaPrufrock it just depends on the dept of travel. According to their website http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/processing/processing_1740.html
Currently processing is taking approximately 4 weeks.

So futurelaker88 won’t need expedited service…

This is good to know. My daughter is traveling to France this summer, and needs her passport renewed, but she was under age on the old one, so it’s like starting over.

If you have a passport agency near you, you can go in and do it in person. This shaves a couple weeks off the turnaround time.

If you’re three months out, you probably don’t need expedited processing, but you do need to get moving on it right now. (Sorry if I sound like your father.)

I thought the average wait time for a passport was just under 3 months anyways… assuming all is well, and you have all the necessary and proper documents.

I think it took mine under 2 months, and when I got my government passport, that was about a month.