Travel Secrets: How To Snare a Passport In As Little As One Day

Effective Jan. 23, 2007, US citizens flying into the US from Bermuda, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean (excluding the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico) are required to display a valid passport.  Travelers returning to the US via land or sea from some of those destinations will have another year before they need a passport, though the precise deadline has not yet been determined.  My advice: If you have any plans to leave the country, get a passport.

If your plans call for travel within the next two months, today would be a good time to apply for a passport or to renew an about-to-expire one.   I talked to the passport folks at the State Department earlier this week and learned that in December, the office experienced a whopping 57 per cent increase in the number of passports issued compared to December of 2005.  The wait can be as long as six weeks.

What if you need to travel sooner?

Request the State Department's "expedited" service.  It costs an extra $60, but if you need a passport in two weeks or so, the extra fee is obviously worth it.  To learn how to get an expedited passport from Uncle Sam, call this toll-free number: 877-487-2778. 

Need a passport even faster?  Retain the services of a private company that will "walk" your passport application through the bureaucracy in a day.  You'll pay the expediter as much as $150 for that service, less if you can wait a few more days.  Just type "passport expediter" in any search engine and go shopping.

For general details on how to apply for a passport or how to renew one, check out a new website set up by the Travel Industry Association.