Renew Passport at a Post Office

A passport is one of the most important legal documents, as it establishes the nationality of a person and his identity. Needless to say, travel abroad is impossible without a valid passport. In case, your passport needs a renewal, you can take help of your local post office. The US department of state has granted rights to the post office service to renew passports.

The job of issuing and renewing passports to US citizens lies with the US 'Passport services', which is a department of the 'Bureau of Consular Affairs'. This department has 16 passport offices spread throughout the country, where citizens can apply for or renew their passports within 2 weeks before travel. Other than these sixteen main passport offices, there are around 9000 other passport issuance and renewal facilities around the country, which includes post offices, county offices, city offices and US courts. As you may know, the US state department now issues only biometric passports which have a visually readable and machine readable part.

How to Renew Passport at Post Office?

Provided you satisfy the eligibility criteria and possess the requisite legal documents required to establish your identity and nationality, you can get the passport renewed at the post office. If you remember getting a passport for the first time, the renewal is quite a simple and straightforward process.

Post Office Location
Find out which is the closest post office that offers passport renewal facility.

Eligibility
There are certain conditions for passport renewal that need to be satisfied if you want to avail this facility. To renew your passport at post office, you may be eligible under any of the following conditions:

• In case your passport is damaged, you can apply for renewal.
• If your age was less than 16 when you first applied for a passport, you must apply for a renewal.
• If you have no legal proof of a name change, then you must renew your passport.

To renew your passport at post office, you must fill out the DS-11 application and submit it along with requisite documents.

Documents
What are the documents required? You will need to provide a copy of original birth certificate, passport size photographs, driving license and carry the originals with you.

Fees
How much does a renewed passport cost? The fees for passport renewal that you will have to pay is $75, which you must pay through a check. Besides that basic fee, an additional fee of $25 will have to be paid as processing charges and around $8 extra if you get your photos clicked too.

Waiting Period
How long does it take to get your passport renewed? After you apply for renewal, it may take as much as four to six weeks for your renewed passport to arrive. If you have an urgent need of renewal due to travel reasons, I suggest that you directly apply to the 16 main nodal passport offices. You can also apply for passport renewal through mail.

Hope this article has left you in no doubt about renewing a passport at post office. It is just a matter of getting the right documents in place and filling up the form with requisite details. The best part is that you don't need to run around a lot and get it all done at your nearest post office. Just visit the US postal department website to locate the closest post office with passport renewal facility. As I mentioned before, you can also avail this renewal facility at local public libraries, county offices, state courts and city offices.