Passport emergency/Passport hell! HELP, PLEASE!
Go to the NYC office asap and talk to somebody in person, they may be able to help you out.
i remember people writing here about walk-ins to NYC office if your travel is immediate. Recent Yelp postings I just read suggest arriving as early as 5:30 AM to ensure you get one of the walk-in spots.The door open at 7:30 am. Bring proof of travel and I guess anything else related to the case. So sorry, this sounds horrible but you may have a chance in NYC.
http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/13/state-department-glitch-halts-passport-visa/
It's not as close but I've found the Philadelphia office to be more responsive. Did same day renewal there a few years ago. I will warn against faking a life and death situation: I was traveling on short notice due to a relative's serious illness, and had to submit documentation from her doctors.
Try www.itseasy.com (it's easy passport expeditors). Call them and explain situation to see if they can help given all the circumstances. It is expensive but might be worthwhile if you aren't able to go wait on line at the passport agency.
I'm sure it will work out! Good luck
I had my renewal and a new Visaexpedited by a firm in DC, but it definitely did not happen in only four days. Good luck!
I thought you could more or less routinely get one day passport service in NYC and (a dozen or so) other cities. Is that a pre-9/11 thing of the past?
Growing up in Houston, I believe the nearest one was New Orleans and I recall a friend going there.
Good luck!
I have never done this, but I work across the street from the NYC office - the lines are around the corner typically by about 7:30. I'd arrive no later than 7, and if you need to be in the front of the line, it will need to be earlier.
We discovered we had two expired passports 48 hours before a recent trip....The day before our trip we got in line at NYC passport agency at ~530-6AM which put us near the front of the line...We were seen and done by ~830AM....I was able to go back to the agency to pick-up our passports the same day in the afternoon....Keep in mind though that we were starting out with expired passports, so there was no issue meeting the ID requirements. Good Luck!
Edited to add -- We did not have an appt when we did AM line thing mentioned above....The key is getting there EARLY - well before the agency opens....We were 2nd in line at ~530AM on a bone-chilling morning in Feb.....By the time the agency opened (730AM?) the line stretched around the block....I'm thinking you may want to set up shop no later than 5AM to be safe given the weather / time of the year...At that hour we were able to street park right in front of the passport agency - I don't think the meter even started until 8am, but don't hold me to that ;-)
Back in 2009 I was in a situation where my passport hadn't expired, but it was set to expire soon and some countries require that your passport be good for however long you could legally stay without a VISA. We couldn't get enough clarity if this was an actual problem or not, but we decided to get an emergency last minute passport renewal. I couldn't get anywhere with the official channels, as they would have 'appointments' but you had to deal with an automated phone system to get them and they were always out.
I ended up using the services from rushpassport.com, and I got my passport the next day - I did have to pay dearly for it, but the travel was for work and I think they paid for the expedited portion of the fee, but I paid for the normal passport renewal fee. The fee was about $250 - that's just for the expediting, that's not for the actual passport, I still had to pay the normal fee to the government.
I think these companies work by getting all the slots for appointments and reselling them. They seemed to have a pool of appointments and it seemed like they'd process your applications as best they could with their slots and your date of travel. So they wouldn't let me get same day service ($300) unless my travel was the next day. This was a little annoying from the piece of mind perspective, but at least everything went smoothly. Well, apart from having to show up at the place at some ungodly hour of the morning before work one day and my having the world's worst passport picture as a result.
Your situation sounds a little more complicated, but it can't hurt to give them a call and see what they say.
A second recommendation for CIBT. I called CIBT when we realized our son's passport expired on Thursday for a flight on Sunday. They weren't able to turn around the new passport until Monday, but I still think that's pretty fast. But be prepared to pay for expedited service.
eliz said:
Call CIBT in the morning.
We discovered we had two expired passports 48 hours before a recent trip....The day before our trip we got in line at NYC passport agency at ~530-6AM which put us near the front of the line...We were seen and done by ~830AM....I was able to go back to the agency to pick-up our passports the same day in the afternoon....Keep in mind though that we were starting out with expired passports, so there was no issue meeting the ID requirements. Good Luck!
Edited to add -- We did not have an appt when we did AM line thing mentioned above....The key is getting there EARLY - well before the agency opens....We were 2nd in line at ~530AM on a bone-chilling morning in Feb.....By the time the agency opened (730AM?) the line stretched around the block....I'm thinking you may want to set up shop no later than 5AM to be safe given the weather / time of the year...At that hour we were able to street park right in front of the passport agency - I don't think the meter even started until 8am, but don't hold me to that ;-)
I have executed same day passports at the NYC office. It was expensive but less egregious than one might expect waiting in line and working through the process.
I have used CIBT a lot too, mostly for visas required for my managers' business travel. They really deliver, but they charge for it!
Hopefully you solved this but it happened to my husband too.
We used the service in the concourse of Rock Center in NYC. They offer 24 and 48 hour expediting. It costs a lot (like $200) but they deliver. They are located in the center of the concourse closer to 6th ave by the fancy drugstore.
Afterwards though, people told us they went to the office on Hudson without an appointment but with their airline ticket and were seen. The expiditers take all the appointments and then don't use them all.
There also was a phone line you could call for last minute appointments. We could't get one that way because there was a change in law about visas to India and there was a backlog of people trying to change them.
Good Luck
That center in Rockefeller Center is the one I used to hear about a lot. It's supposed to be very good.
Shanabana, did you get the problem resolved???
My guess is Shanabana is out of the country since she's not responding.
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You can see from the title I'm a teensy bit stressed out! We're supposed to leave for France but my husband has no passport! Is there an expediting service we can use? Or might it actually work to go to NYC office?
We've already paid for expediting, and expedited shipping. Appliation woman said we'd have no problems wit the schedule as is. Wrong. The first guy we spoke with said we did "everything humanly possible" to expedite. Wrong. Second telepone person suggested making an apt at NYC. So far, everyone seems to have been wrong on their end, so I"m not feeling hopeful at all that NYC will see us let alone aknowledge any submitted documentation.
Anyway, I just want to talk to someone who does this a lot, or who has had similar experience. and knows what to expect, or if we can do anything at all. (I'm considering calling the "life death emergency" line and making something up about his sister abroad, which might be the only way to get in without an appt)
For what it is worth, here is the Timeline/Tale of Woe
8 weeks ago My kids and husband applied for their passports. When we did that, the lady told us that my husband's dinky birth cert was lacking his parental info, so that he would receive a letter from the Dept of State requesting more info. She said to submit the insufficient application then, anyway, so as to get the ball rolling. We could simply gather the docs and when the letter from the DoS arrived, just send the docs in and soon get the passport. While we were worried about timeline, we took her advice. Unfortunately.
4 weeks ago, kids got their passports.
3 weeks ago, husband finally gets his letter asking for ridiculous amounts of info, which he does, and sends it in.
2 weeks ago--and two weeks away from travel--we call to check status. Husband is advised to pay for expedited service, which he does. He asks customer service rep if there is ANY other thing he can do to make sure it comes in time, and he is literally told he's "done everything humanly possible". Unfortunately, we now know, this is NOT true. We could have still at that point probably made an apt at the NCY office to get the thing in person.
Tonight (now a mere 4 days out from travel) we call again, and are told--only after asking over and again if theres "anything we can do"--that there there is, in fact, another option, even when all the docs are withthe DOS and not with us, which is to make appt at NYC office. He as told the NYC office "would know" about the docs, and so he could get his passport if he makes an appointment and does it that way.
Tonight I was also told by a machine that NYC office now has no apts before July 6, which is 10 day into our trip.
help!