I am going to Jamaica in October and I am in need of a passport. Where do I go to get one? I've been calling post offices and none of them seem to offer passport services.
If you have one month or longer before your trip go to the Post Office. I thought all Post Offices had that service, but I guess call around more. If you are leaving within 10 days, you will have to go to the Passport Office and wait in line for about 4 hours. You also will have to have your booking and travel tickets to show for confirmation. They only allow last minute travelers there. Third option is a passport agency. They charge anywhere between 75-100 bucks on top of the passport fee. They will get you the passport back in less than 10 days. I would still suggest going to the Post Office. Cheapest route, since you aren't in a hurry.
FWIW, I received an email from Orbitz warning about longer than usual processing times for passports (10-12 weeks for routine service ) so I would try to get that done asap to avoid cutting it close.
Go get your passport asap. And you may want to expedite. From what I'm told, the US has changed it rules so that people flying to Mexico are now required to travel with a passport. This has dramatically increased traffic in the passport offices as there are a couple million people planning on going to Mexico who now have to get a passport to do so and the increase is just crippling the passport offices. My brother and his wife are going to Europe soon and they may not be able to bring their son because his passport is taking so long. There are companies now, apparently, that you can pay to get your passport faster. They do the processing work for the govt, I think. I don't know much about that.
I got my passport about 2 months ago. If you pay $175 they'll send it to you in about 2 weeks, instead of 6-8 weeks. I know for sure the Post Office on Red Oak and 1960 does the passports and photo
I got mine in 3 days from a place here in Austin. All I had to do was send them a fax on company letterhead saying that I would be leaving the country in a week to the UK....and they had my passport sent to my front door. Ordered it on Tuesday it arrived on Friday. Of course, my old one was about to expire and I was in good standing which helped, but it was really easy. DD
I just talked to a place on about 2000 Smith Street close to 1919 Smith where the passport agency is. For $175,they say they can get a passport in 2 or 3 dyas. It is taking several months to get one in many cases. They charge less for better service than you get at the Passport Office, but it takes longer than a couple of days. They have in the last month partly rescinded the Mexico rule at least in Houston for another year after they were recently overrun once school let out. I think it is sufficient if you just applied for one and can show that. It was suspended along much if not all of the Texas border in Jan 2007 shortly after the new law for Mex and Canada went into effect. It has created a mess.
I guess only hispanics travel I'm currently going to my honeymoon cruise in November, I don't have a passport (will be my first one), it will be to the western caribbean . I had no idea of the delays involved. Has anyone recently gotten their first passport? How long did it take?
I hear that those companies will let you put whatever name you want on your passport too. You need a passport to get into Canada now too, btw. Strictly speaking I don’t think you need the passport to get into Canada but you need it to get back into the US. And Canadians need passports to fly in the US now. We can still drive across without one but that will be changing in a year or so too, and that’s going to play havoc on the cross boarder traffic. I think something like 7 million trucks and 30 million passenger vehicles cross the Canadian boarder into the US each hear, and soon every man, woman, and child in them will have to have a passport. http://www.bts.gov/programs/international/border_crossing_entry_data/us_canada/index.html
