by lastminutetravel | February 20th, 2010
If it’s your first time to apply for a passport, you’ll likely be confused with all the things you need to deal with in such as short time. For one, there are all the forms and documents that you need to provide, and sometimes you will be required to do a little legwork. It’s not really that confusing, however, and it shouldn’t be complicated. Let’s make things a lot easier by showing you what you need to know about applying for a New pasPort.
Because you’ll be dealing a lot with forms, it pays to be familiar with the different forms used in passport applications. Some forms are used to apply for passports; others are used to renew passports; others are for reporting the loss or theft of passports. Now since you’re likely applying for a passport for the first time, let’s deal with the first type of passport.
Since you’re a first time passport applicant, you’ll need to fill in the DS-11 form. This is the form used by people who never had passports before. The good thing is that you can already download this form at the US Department of State’s website. You have the choice of filling the form in on your computer then printing it out, or you could also print out the form first then fill it in later by hand. What’s important here is the convenience it gives you. You no longer need to go to the passport office to get this form.
You will need to submit this form along with the other documents that may be required of you once you have completed this. When processing your passport, you have two options of going about this procedure. The first one is the routine passport processing, which you can choose if you’re not in a hurry to get your passport. Currently, the processing time for routine passports is four to six weeks.
Meanwhile, if you need to have your passport processed in less than four weeks, then you need to have your application expedited. As the name suggests, an expedited passport takes a lot faster to process than those that go through routine processing. In other words, expedited passports are given priority over routine ones.
Expedited passports are typically processed within a two to three week timeframe. This is the processing option of those who already have tickets for travel in less than two weeks. Aside from that, people who need to apply for a foreign visa in four weeks also opt to get an expedited New pasPort.
Since expedited passports are a form of value-added service, it’s already a given that this service will also come with an extra price. Don’t worry though, as the extra price isn’t that steep. In fact, the price already pays for itself in terms of processing speed and convenience that it gives you.
When it comes to applying for a New U.S. Passport, you have two options to go about it. First, you can choose the routine passport processing that doesn’t require an extra fee, but may be too slow if you need to travel soon. Then there’s the expedited passport processing. The price that you pay for this kind of service is offset by the convenience and speed that it affords you.
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