Naturally, you would never do something like this on purpose, but somehow, you noticed just before your international trip that your trusty passport is about to expire. You do not want to forego your trip, but you do not know what to do. If you cannot wait six long weeks to get a new one in the mail, then you need to take advantage of an expedited pasport renewal.
It can actually be quite tricky to navigate the system and get yourself one of these new government-mandated documents in time to make it to your flight, but it can be done. Each state has a different way of handling this. You also need to know how many days remain until your trip, so be sure to pay attention to all of the small details when figuring it out.
Count the number of days remaining until your trip and determine if you fall into the open window of time where you cannot do anything. When your travel plans are two to six weeks away, you are too late to apply for a regular passport. Yet, you are also too early to apply for an expedited one. So as frustrating as it is, there is nothing you can do.
Once you have reached those final two weeks, you can now make a call to the nearest government office that will do this kind of service. They do not offer a choice of dates here or try to be accommodating to you at all, so be ready to take off from work whenever they tell you have an appointment. They will give you one sometime within a few days after you call, so be prepared to drop everything to go.
When you arrive at the office, be sure you have all the proper forms with you because these types of offices are not known for their flexibility or friendliness. If you forgot something at home, then you have lost your chance so check online exactly what you need before you head out and make sure to bring it along with you. The clerks behind the counter are trained to just skip someone who is unprepared, so do not let yourself be one of those people.
You can also avoid this system altogether by checking into services that will take care of it for you. The internet provides many places that claim to process the paperwork for you and take care of it without you having to step foot in a single office. They might charge a pretty large fee for a service like this, but it may be worth it for you to take advantage.
Try going online and searching for one of them if you wish to save yourself the headache or if you know that you cannot miss a day of work. Not all of the places that come up are truly honest, so be careful what you get yourself into. Do your research on the company before sending them a check or handing over your credit card number.
Although it may not be fun or easy to get an expedited pass port renewal, it is a good thing that this service is available. If you succeed in making it through this trying system, you can be happy that you still get to enjoy your trip even though you had an expired US passport. With your new travel documents in hand, you can breeze through security and quickly get to your flight.
