subject: Using The Services Of A Us Passport Agency [print this page] Passports are documents that are issued to travelers by their home governments before they can visit other countries. For international travel, the items are mandatory and must state both the holder's identity and nationality. Although they date back before medieval times, passports weren't regulated internationally until the mid 1980s. Today, a passport from one country can greatly differ from another with a rough standardization. In the United States, citizens can't obtain one until they apply at any of the pass port agencies around the country.
International travel cannot be possible unless you have a passport issued in your name. If you have an upcoming vacation to the Bahamas or a trip around Europe planned in the near future, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to apply for yours. Especially since, lately, obtaining these documents can often take up to three months or more.
Locating a passport agency in your city is the first step. The post office tends to serve out this function in most American cities. Check online or call yours ahead to make sure that this is the case. You could check the agency's website for outlets that are around you. While you're there, fill out and print off a DS-11 form and bring it with you when you apply for your passport.
You will need two photographs of yourself that will go into the document. Often these can be taken at the same location as the rest of the process, although it sometimes can't. You may need have your passport picture taken at a separate location for a small fee and bring it with you.
You'll need to bring things with you when you are ready to apply for the travel document. Before you're approved, you'll first have to prove that you are a US citizen. Bring your naturalization certificate, previously obtained passport or certificate of birth with you.
To confirm your identification, you will have to take with you an updated driver's license or United States military id. Just like with the confirmation of citizenship, a previous passport of yours will be acceptable, too. You might also be required to bring confirmation of your social security with you too.
Before you can be accepted, you will also be asked to pay fees when you show up to the passport application process. For all US citizens sixteen and over, it is fifty five dollars for the application fee and thirty dollars for the passport's execution fee. For security, a lot of the states charge an extra couple of dollars as well.
