Weddingbee Blog

The expedited service is very fast but they really take advantage of the fact that you’re in a rush and charge you a LOT! I would try to get an appointment at the New York passport agency first and if that really doesn’t work, then you should look into expedited service. I hope it works out! Good luck!

I found out about the passport must be valid for 6 months after departure rule at the airport! I was visiting family in Hong Kong and then we were all going to the Phillippines to visit more family and they refused to let me on the plane in Hong Kong. I had to rush my butt to the US Embassy and beg for a new passport. Luckily I was able to get a new one within 24 hours and got on another flight the next day.

eeek!! i have to get my passport renewed. it expired last year. thank you for reminding me!! i’m leaving for my honeymoon in mid-may. hope that with the new regulations, i’ll be ok with the regular passport service.

Oh yes, we’re going through the same nightmare right now. I already got my passport in November, JUST before the rush, and have been reminding my FI every week since October to put his application in. We live in CAnada and have to be in Vegas for a friend’s wedding in April! He kept telling me to stop nagging him until I came home a couple weeks ago and said that I’d heard on the radio that people who were just then getting in their applications were out of luck if they needed them for March break. Then he FINALLY got his butt in gear, since our trip is only a week or two after March break. There’s a very good chance that he won’t have it in time and we’ll have to fly out of Seattle instead of Vancouver. For that reason, we can’t book our flights till the last minute and may have to pay sky-high prices for flights as a result. I sure hope not.

From my own personal experience in CA I had mine expedited but it still felt like forever. It took approx. 4-5 weeks for it to come, just in time for my trip! then again this was before the big changes.

Just recently though, I helped my in-laws get theirs. They sent out their apps in early January, needless to say, they still have not arrived. Good thing their plans aren’t til the end of March.

For piece of mind pay the extra money you have to, the worst thing would be to say I couldn’t go because “I was too cheap to pay for expedited service and forgot to send it out earlier!”

About a month after September 11, I was in New York visiting a friend. I lost my drivers license on the subway and had no ID to board my return flight to California. So I contacted one of the private expediting services. They charged me about $100, but they got the job done. I showed up at their office and they gave me all of the needed forms and told me what kind of ID I needed (I had my roommate overnight my social security card and birth certificate). I still had to go to the post office to sign the application in front of the appropriate person. The next day, I picked up my passport at the expediter’s office. The whole process took three days. I’m not sure if it was worth the money, but I wouldn’t have known what to do on my own and they made it pretty easy. Good luck, Mrs. Bee!

My bags were stolen at the airport this summer, so I had to get a new passport in a very short time, too. I went to the passport agency, but a warning: even if you make an appointment you have to wait outside for an hour, and then you have to wait HOURS (I’m talking 3-4) on line in a noisy crowded room to even speak to an agent, but that goes by very quickly, and you can return the next day and pick it up.

I did the NYC passport office thing–conveniently, it’s right across the street from my office! I had lost my passport, and suddenly needed to go to Canada for business. But these days you need a passport to fly, even to Canada. It was no big deal–I think it was fairly expensive, but my job paid for it so I don’t remember. And now…I can’t find my passport again. I have a bad habit of putting things in “safe” places and then forgetting. I thought I knew where it was, then I moved, now I have to rip everything apart before my honeymoon.

P.S. this was last year though

i actually “lost” my passport about two weeks before my trip. i just went to the philadelphia passport agency in the morning and was able to get my new passport that afternoon. it cost about $90 total.

of course, i found my passport when i returned