Rush Passport – Passport Blog

Need to get a passport in a hurry?  You can do it yourself, but here’s some advice – don’t!  After reading this blog, you’ll understand why it’s much better to call Rush Passport™, Official US Passport Expeditors, Registered with the US Department of State and Foreign Consulates.

A recent article in the NY Times tells an all too familiar story.  Ms. Azlant and her boyfriend Mr. Duffy would much rather have been on a plane to Aruba, and they would have been if her passport had not expired five days earlier.  This happens to somebody everyday!

Instead of going to a passport expeditor, there the young Brooklyn couple were – sitting outside on the sidewalk in front of the New York Passport Agency at 376 Hudson Street.  There are 17 passport centers nationwide and the NYC location is the busiest of all, servicing upwards of 3,000 wannabe travelers each week. In all, including select post offices, there are over 9,000 locations around the U.S., that accept passport applications, but these 17 passport centers are for the most urgent passport situations.

This is where people go after finding out that they have a problem on the day that they are supposed to travel.  Common passport emergencies include families who get to the airport for an international flight only to find out that their children’s passports are expired.  Other examples are even more critical as people are in desperate need of a passport to visit a relative who has passed away or even worse – to pay last respects to someone dying overseas. Others have lost their passports or had them stolen.  And yet others come in from other states across the US because there are no passport offices that can help them where they live, so they figure they will give it a shot in New York City.

Just because you have spent hours waiting on the sidewalk doesn’t guarantee that you will be granted a passport.  The Passport Agency is very strict about which applicants are issued passports.  By 7:30 a.m., there is already a long line of anxious and hopeful passport applicants who get herded like cattle into a line by a security officer.  Passport applicants are then corralled into order based on appointment time followed by the emergency cases.

Then the passport hopefuls are handled with the warmth of a visit to Riker’s Island as they are reminded by a security guard that they are about to enter a federal building and that there are “No sharp objects. No pepper spray. No food or beverages. We can’t hold anything for anybody.”

It is not a pleasant atmosphere to be in, especially as tempers can flare up in a split second as people are so anxious to begin with.  Since applicants are not allowed to bring food into the building, some resort to strange solutions like stashing it in trash cans and others have even reported that there’s a candy store that will watch your lunch for $5.00.

They are then subjected to metal detectors and sent to wait indefinitely for an interview.  After this whole process, some people can get rejected for the tiniest glitch in their applications such as having passport photos that were taken from too far away, with improper lighting or for being not perfectly centered.

Does this process sound like fun yet?  I didn’t think so…

If you do find yourself in a passport emergency, do yourself a favor – contact Rush Passport™ (877) 937-7277 (All 50 States) or (212) 643-9305 / New York Agency 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and speak with a Live Agent or visit us online at http://www.rushpassport.com