How soon could I get a passport if I apply in a week or so?

Question

And if I pay the extra fee to have it sent faster...

Answer 1

Return times on new passport requests have been getting better.  Last year it was taking up to 6 months.  Now with any luck you can get it in under 6 weeks or maybe even 1 weeks with the expidited service. Check out this blog from 5 months ago.

Need a passport in a hurry? Good luck!

You can pay extra for expedited service from the By BETH J. HARPAZ, AP Travel Editor

State Department, but there are no guarantees. You can ask for an appointment at a passport center, but you may not get one. You can ask your congressman to intervene. Or you can hire a private expediter.Whatever you do, the experience may leave you bitter."The last few months have been the most expensive, the most frustrating and the most nerve-racking time that I've had in my life," said James Meehan, 21, a University of Southern California student who spent hours on the phone and hours at the federal building in Los Angeles trying to get the passport he applied for in May for a trip to Brazil in July. It didn't arrive in time, so he also had to pay to change his tickets.

There's nobody to help and there's nobody to care," Meehan said. "You really do not have a voice. After all the problems I faced, who am I going to call? President Bush? The Better Business Bureau? I can't take my service elsewhere. It's not like canceling a cell phone."

The six-week process for obtaining a passport ballooned to 12 weeks when new regulations were imposed in January requiring passports for air travel from Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. Last month those rules were relaxed. Now Americans returning from those countries only need a receipt showing they applied for a passport.

But a backlog in processing passports remains. Here are options for desperate travelers, with anecdotes about how well they work.

• You can pay $60 plus overnight delivery fees for expedited service from the State Department. "The process can generally be completed in about two to three weeks," said Ann Barrett, deputy assistant secretary of state for passport services.

Maura Harty, assistant secretary of consular affairs, said that "we regularly provide passports in one day or, in some cases, the same day, for travelers with urgent needs," including "life-and-death emergencies."

For leisure travel, Jessica Labaire of TNT Vacations in Boston said the expedited service "often works, but in many cases, it has not worked. It's been completely sporadic." Many TNT customers canceled trips this year when passports did not arrive in time. "We estimate a 10 to 20 percent loss in business because of this," she said.

Jacqueline Hahey, 25, of Scottsdale, Ariz., applied for an expedited passport in May and got it in a week, in time for a trip to Costa Rica. "I"d just heard so many horrible stories, I almost fell over when it arrived at my door," she said. "But it's really so random - it's the luck of the draw."

Answer 2

There are some great services on-line. You can get it as fast as 24 hours (for a pretty large fee). This is a great site my family and I have used in the past. http://bit.ly/2e8j5S