Passport Acceptance Facility

The passport acceptance facility is a required step for most passport applications. If you are applying for a new passport, a child passport, or to replace a lost, stolen, or damaged passport, you will need to visit a local passport acceptance facility. The acceptance agent will verify your identity and documents. Routine processing is 6-8 weeks so if you need your passport sooner, you must expedite.

There is no way around this required step. If you are applying for an adult passport renewal, passport name change, or second duplicate passport, you will not need to visit a passport acceptance facility so you can skip this step and get your passport expedited with ease.

Passport Acceptance Facility

A passport acceptance facility is authorized by the U.S. Department of State to accept and verify the documents, applicant signature and identity for passport applications. This is a required step for ALL passport applicants for a new adult passport, child (minor) passport,  lost, stolen, or damaged passport applications.

With over 8000 passport acceptance facilities across the country, you can almost always find a local passport acceptance facility. Usually passport acceptance facilities are found at your post office, county clerk, and some library locations. If you’d like to find a location near you, you can search by state or visit the U.S. Department of State website here: http://iafdb.travel.state.gov/

The passport acceptance agent will verify your documents, identity, and signature. They will then take all of your documents and photos and put them into a specially sealed ‘adjudicated envelope’. This envelope cannot be opened or tampered. From here, depending on how fast you want your passport, the processing steps begin.

Passport Processing Times

Routine processing for a passport is 6-8 weeks. If you submit your passport directly through the passport acceptance facility or USPS, expect it to take the full amount of time. If you need your passport faster than 6-8 weeks, you will need to expedite it.

Expediting a passport requires that the applicant complete the same process as applying for routine service. The expedited process is more or less the same, except that instead of sending your sealed adjudicated envelope through the post office AFTER you visit the passport acceptance agent, you send the sealed envelope to us. We can get the passport processed and delivered in two weeks or less, even as fast as 24 hours. Because we are registered as a private passport expeditor with the U.S. Department of State, we have access to hand-carry your documents for immediate processing. Simply put, this means we can help you get your passport fast!