Getting a passport in a hurry

NEW YORK — Need a passport in a hurry?

You can pay extra for expedited service from the State Department, but there are no guarantees it will be issued quickly. You can ask for an appointment at a passport center, but you may not get one. You can ask your congressional representative to intervene. Or you can hire a private expediter.

Whatever you do, the experience may leave you frustrated as the U.S. State Department has been overwhelmed with applications.

"The last few months have been the most expensive, the most frustrating and the most nerve-racking time that I've had in my life," said James Meehan, 21, a University of Southern California student who spent hours on the phone and hours at the federal building in Los Angeles trying to get the passport he applied for in May for a trip to Brazil in July. It didn't arrive in time, so he also had to pay to change his tickets.

"There's nobody to help and there's nobody to care," Meehan said. "You really do not have a voice. After all the problems I faced, who am I going to call? President Bush? The Better Business Bureau? I can't take my service elsewhere. It's not like canceling a cell phone."

The six-week process for obtaining a passport ballooned to 12 weeks when new regulations were imposed in January requiring passports for air travel from Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. Last month those rules were temporarily relaxed. Now Americans returning from those countries only need a receipt showing they applied for a passport (plus identification such as a birth certificate; check www.travel.state.gov for details).

But a backlog in processing passports remains. Here are options for desperate travelers, with anecdotes about how well they work.

• Expedited service: You can pay $60 plus overnight delivery fees for expedited passport service from the State Department. "The process can generally be completed in about two to three weeks," said Ann Barrett, deputy assistant secretary of state for passport services.

Maura Harty, assistant secretary of consular affairs, said that "we regularly provide passports in one day or, in some cases, the same day, for travelers with urgent needs," including "life-and-death emergencies."

Jacqueline Hahey, 25, of Scottsdale, Ariz., applied for an expedited passport in May and got it in a week, in time for a trip to Costa Rica. "I'd just heard so many horrible stories, I almost fell over when it arrived at my door," she said. "But it's really so random — it's the luck of the draw."

You can try getting help or an appointment (at one of the regional passport offices) by phoning the National Passport Information Center, 877-487-2778.

But getting through isn't easy. "After 10 to 15 minutes of dead silence on the phone, you get a recording that says, 'We're sorry, there are no appointments available.' Then they hang up on you," said Meehan.

• Contact your congressional representative:

Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., has helped 240 families, including Matt Stuart. When Stuart's passport hadn't arrived 15 weeks after applying, his fiancee got 200 people to e-mail Sarbanes with the subject line, "Save Matt Stuart's honeymoon!"

Sarbanes' staff got an appointment for Stuart at a passport office Tuesday, and he hopes to get the passport in time for a Thursday departure for Venice.

• Pay a private expediter: Some 200 private companies are authorized by the State Department to obtain passports on behalf of others, according to Robert Smith, director of the National Association of Passport and Visa Services. NAVP represents 20 of the largest expediters, handling hundreds of thousands of passport applications a year.

Each company is allotted a quota of daily appointments at passport offices. But they can't fish your passport out of the bureaucracy if you've already applied, unless you cancel your original application and start the process over.

Demand for expediting services has increased, but the number of applications individual expediters are allowed to submit has decreased, Smith said.

"Every day we're turning away people," said Smith. "We're not able to serve everyone who's looking for help."

CIBT Inc., the nation's largest expediter with offices in seven cities, charges $174 to get a passport in four days or more, and $254 for a "super-rush emergency," said spokesman Steven Diehl. "We've seen a 50 percent increase in passport work during the first six months of 2007, and we've nearly doubled our call volume."

CIBT deals mostly with tour operators and corporate clients, but has been able to accommodate most requests from the public, Diehl said.

State Dept. overwhelmed

The State Department expects nearly 18 million passport applications this year, up from 12.1 million last year. The agency hired extra staff and ordered diplomats home with a goal of "reducing passport turnaround time to normal levels by the end of the year," said Harty. "The passport situation is a top priority at the State Department, and we are devoting resources and personnel to getting back on track."