How Long Does it Take to Get a Passport?
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KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
I think as long as your stuff is filled out right, you didn't smile in your picture, and you're not a terrorist then the estimate they give is pretty good.
My wife and I had to get our passports renewed in March for a trip we had planned for the middle of May. We had them expedited and it took 2-3 weeks. We both took them to a Post Office that had a Passport office which may have helped expedite things as well. Our passports had expired, so we both went in thinking we needed new passports but we were able to get them renewed. She went to a Post Office in Des Moines and I went to the one in Ames. I was there for about 20 minutes and it was pretty painless.
Passports are getting processed much faster now than they were a year ago. Expedited requests are being processed (from when they arrive to the State Department) in a little over a week, and regular requests are taking between 2-3 weeks. Demand will pick up over the summer so those times may slow a bit, but you can confidently expect no more than 2-3 weeks for expedited service and 5-7 weeks for regular service moving forward (plus transit time between the post office and the State Department).
Going to the courthouse is the best advice I can give anyone about this process. Call ahead and set an appointment. They literally did everything and triple checked everything for my kids application. Had it down to a very detailed process.
I second this. We scheduled an appointment to get our 17 year old and 20 year old their first passports at the county courthouse and everything was very smooth. Currently, it seems like they are processing these very fast, as we received the passports for both in a little over three weeks. Was expecting at least twice that long.
Daughter just had to renew hers. Her initial one was only for 5 years as she's a minor. On Monday they told her 6-8 weeks.
demoncore1031
Well-Known Member
We planned a Mexico trip in 2019. 3 weeks before the trip I realized my passport was expired. We were living in the Des Moines area at the time. I made the earliest available appointment to the passport office closest to us and took a day trip to Minneapolis. Got there, they said my photo was not good because I had my glasses on. Thanks Walgreens for being very poor passport photo takers. Had to walk to the post office down the street from the passport office to get a new photo. Thankfully the passport office held my appointment until I returned with the proper photo. Had my passport in like 3 days. So, it’s doable to get one quick. Just cost time, distance, and money.
