No parent wants to get the phone call that their child has been hurt. Imagine getting that phone call when the child is on a trip abroad and not having a passport. While this can be a very stressful situation, it is made easier with emergency United States passport services. There are services that will allow someone to forego all the normal waiting periods and have a passport ready to go in as little as a single day.
For U.S. residents, the Department of State (DOS) through its Passport Information Center is one way to approach the need for an immediate passbook or card. The DOS regards a life and death emergency as a serious injury, illness or death of an immediate family member requiring travel within 24-48 hours. One major requirement is that the applicants show up in person at a passport agency, which is usually a local post office.
There is a National Passport Information Center that has an automatic phone appointment system that can be accessed 24/7. If it is impossible to get an appointment time that meets the family’s needs, a live person can be reached at a call center from 6AM to 12 midnight, ET, on weekdays. A customer service representative can supply direction on what to do in this case.
While it would be nice to think that our government could handle this task without any issues, they are sometimes not able to process the application quick enough for your liking. When this happens, there are passport expediting agencies that are set up that can bypass all the normal channels and get a passport much quicker than we could on our own. Having them handle all of the details can turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
When 24 hour turnaround is the only option, these firms can do this for you. In the case of a family already struggling with the illness of a member abroad, even the expedited government process can seem onerous. It is a simple fact that when one is stressed and consumed with other necessities, it becomes far easier to make mistakes in the application, which could cause it to be delayed even more. A private agency takes this burden away and allows the family to concentrate on other needed activities such as arranging transportation.
To find these private agencies, all you need to do is get online and do a search. We would issue a word of warning though to make sure that the agency is checked out. A great way to do this is to check with the Better Business Bureau to see if there are any live complaints against the company or to see if they have a history of unsatisfied customers.
It should go without saying, but while these agencies are very helpful, they are there to make a profit. That being the case, the fees that they charge can be substantial, depending upon the turnaround time that is needed. In many cases the overall costs can be five or six times what it would cost to get a passport via normal channels.
While nobody ever wants to pay the fees that are associated with rush service, sometimes there is no other choice but to use emergency new passport services. It is for this very reason that everyone should always have a valid passport on hand. However, it is nice to know that should we neglect to get our passport in time, there are pasport expediting services out there that can make this happen and allow us to get with our loved ones in an emergency.
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