Emergency Pasport – It Shouldn’t Be A Difficult Thing To Do

When you’re applying for a US passport, it’s usually fine to just go through the routine passport application process. After all, the four to six week waiting time is often reasonable if you don’t really need to travel out of the country soon. But in cases where you can’t wait that long, you have a choice of having an expedited passport application or getting an Emergency Pass Port.

Let’s start with the application for an expedited passport. For those who cannot wait for the four to six week waiting period in routine passport processing, you can take advantage of the expedited processing option. This is ideal for those who need to travel sooner than four weeks and thus need to have a quick way of having their passports processed.

Compared to routine passport applications, expedited Passports are usually processed within a two to three week period. And because routine passport applications sometimes take longer than six weeks to process, the US Department of State recommends travelers who need to leave the country in ten weeks to have their application expedited instead. For some, two to three weeks is still a long waiting period. However, it definitely is a huge improvement from the routine application.

Why would you need an expedited passport? You generally need to have your US passport application expedited if you need to travel outside of the country in less than two weeks. Aside from that, expedited applications are recommended to those who need their passports within four weeks when applying for a foreign visa.

Again, the typical processing period of an expedited passport takes two to three weeks. But there are times when you cannot wait that long to get your passport. An example would be family emergencies that you would require you to leave the country sooner. That’s where you’ll need to apply for an emergency passport.

In times of family emergencies, the US Department of State issues emergency passports to its citizens. This is applicable to anyone who has family emergencies outside of the country and has to travel in 48 hours or less. So if this kind of situation applies to you, you will be eligible to apply for an emergency passport.

But how do you apply for an emergency passport? For those unfortunate situations when you’ll need this type of passport, you’ll have to contact the National Passport Information Agency. This agency will be the one that will take care of your emergency passport needs. You can them any time of the day. However, should you be unable to set an appointment with the agency, just hang on the line and talk to the customer service representative and see what are options are available to you.

If you need to travel within four weeks, you can have your passport application expedited. However, in cases of family emergencies outside the country, your choice would be to apply for an Emergency USA Passport.