Get a Passport Quickly for Cruise Travel

If you have a cruise coming up and absolutely need a passport, it is possible to get one quickly (within 24 hours). While most closed loop cruises (cruises that begin and end in the United States) do NOT require you to have a passport in order to travel, some cruise lines do require that you have one no matter where the cruise is going.

Here is how you can obtain a US passport quickly for travel outside of the United States:

To expedite a USA passport in a day, you would bring your applications and documents to an American passport processing center and personally present them or find a high quality expediting service provider to get it done for them. The quickest and easiest way to get your passport in an emergency situation is to just let an expedited service do it for you.

If you want to try and get your passport quickly yourself you would just visit the closest United States passport processing center. They can be found in major cities throughout the U.S. including Houston, Philadelphia, and Honolulu among many various locations. There are about 18 regional areas in the United States. Plans are being made to inaugurate a few more in the near future.

To get a head start on the paperwork that you will have to fill out at the United States Passport Processing Center you can visit their website at http://travel.state.gov/passport/forms/ds11/ds11_842.html This website has the forms that you need to fill out and you can bring them in when you get to your local office. Unfortunately they do NOT at this time allow you to mail them in.

The only problem with visiting a US Passport processing center yourself is if you are scheduled to go on your cruise soon, it may be hard for you to get an appointment. When you call in appointments are typically set up a few days beyond the date of the call. You may have some luck just showing up to the processing center if you are unable to get an appointment over the phone.

When expediting a passport you have to present evidence that your cruise travel will be taking place soon to prove that you need an expedited passport. Additional requirements consist of a filled-out form, picture Identification, copy of Identification, evidence of US citizenship, two passport pictures and the proper payment. One of the main reason applications are denied are issues with photos. Make sure that you get your photos at a place that has experience taking passport pictures.

Again if you don’t live close to an agency, it is best (and about your only option) to use an expedited processing service .There are a few on the market (VisaHQ  is a great one) due to the growing number of US travelers who find out that they need a passport at the last minute.

Almost all expediters make available a choice of expediting services such as 11 business days, 8-10 business days, 5-7 business days, 2-4 business days and one business day. Fees start at $49.99 and go to $199 for same day processing.

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Use the passport tool below in order to get the help that you need: