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A passport is documentation of your status while traveling abroad in another country. This is to get you through customs when you enter or exit the countries. You can apply for your passport at any given time if this is your first time applying for a passport. You’re advised to apply for your passport at least 90 days before your scheduled travel date, and that’s because you need to give yourself as much time in advance to go through the application process and to get a recent photo made to accompany the application since immigration doesn’t take photos for passports you have to get one made by one of those small photo booths or at a drug store like CVS or Walgreens who charge about $5-8 for a set of 5 ID sized pictures.
You can apply for a passport either through the post office, county courthouse, public libraries, city or village halls, State and other government municipal offices. In recent events there have been major delays of processing application for first timers and renewals of passports. The state department estimated that applications for renewal and first time passports has gone up from 12.1 million in 2006 to 18 million in 2007, and from the normal 6 week processing period the wait could go as long as 12 weeks. The delay is due in part from a new law that went into effect in January requiring those who traveled abroad to Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, and Bermuda to produce a passport upon re-entry into the United States.
According to news reports that in early 2008 it will be required to show a passport when re-entering the United States from Canada and Mexico by land and the Caribbean by ship. In the recent months that the passport application processing time was down from 12 to 10 weeks and was working to get the turn over time back to the standard 6 week waiting period. This new law was to enforce better security when people entered the country from foreign lands. Those who did apply for passports didn’t have immediate travel plans versus those who were traveling within a specific amount of time when they got their passports in the mail. Homeland security had stated that this was aimed to better monitor who enters and exits the country and to verify the identities of those who come in and out of the country through air, land, and sea ports of entry into the United States.
When to update your passport
The best time to update your passport is when it’s close to the time of expiration and usually you don’t have to wait to do it when it expires and those who have them are advised to do it right away before the expiration date. You renew your passport every 5 years. The exception are women who have been married and changed their last name. They are requires to show a marriage certificate stating their status or ID or driver’s license that has their new name on it or some kind of legal form that was issued by the court for a name change and it has to be the original that you need to show. It’s not a huge hassle as long as it’s done in a timely manner and not too close to when you travel. Children can renew their passports by mail by or after the age of 16 with a valid state ID or driver’s license. When you update or replace a passport keep a note of what documents are needed so that it can expedite the process and being familiar with the passport laws in the United States can save you a lot of time and stress.
If you update your passport and are looking to expedite you’re going to pay a a lot in express mail or FEDEX fees to have it sent there and back right away. You can get forms for renewal from the post office or you can download the PDF file on the Department of State website. The idea is to save yourself an unnecessary trip to stand in line at the post office for a simple form you can actually download, print, and mail with the correct fee for applying or renewing and wait the time out for it to be mailed. Time is of the essence when you are renewing your passport and should be utilized wisely.
When renewing also consider updating the photo since people gain or lose weight or changed hair or whatever physical changes had taken place. If you want to save the money in having pictures made you can do it yourself using a photo shop program or digital picture enhancement programs you can edit and print out on photo paper and cut carefully and apply to the application. It’s a good way to save money and time and to get what you need right away and in an efficient and timely manner.
