It's going to cost around 300 dollars to do it faster, but you will get your passport in about two weeks. If you do the 150 dollar option, it could take two or three months. With all the events happening, I would just pay the extra to get it done fast, so that you don't have to have anxiety for two or three months.
If you owe the I.R.S. more than 60K, you will get rejected unless you have a pre-arranged payment plan in place.
1. PHOTO - DO IT AT HOME
Download an app to take your photo at home. If you take it at the passport place, it will be the ugliest version of you that you've ever seen. It's smarter to take a selfie at home. It's easy. You can use your phone camera, and can adjust your face and hair, adjust the lighting and angle, and keep taking pictures until you get the look you like. Some of the pictures I took made me look like a zombie, so I fixed the lighting, and I forced my eyes to open because otherwise they droop. I also did a smirk and a little bit of the Instagram duck face. They don't allow you to smile, and say you have to look neutral, but if you look too neutral it won't look good. If you have wrinkles, you can use an app like Bazaart to erase the wrinkles, boogers, pimples, ketchup stains, etc. I forgot to shave so now I have to wait ten years before I can retake the picture. One hair close to my nostril looked like a booger. But I was having bad day and didn't have the patience to get it right.
The picture costs twenty-something dollars and they will mail four copies to you. This price includes two-day shipping. After using the app, I got the pictures in my mailbox in about three days.
Alot of apps are junk and hard to figure out but I found one that does everything automatically. It's free on the phone app store. You just have to tell it what nation the passport is from, then upload a picture from your smartphone to the app. It will tell you if your picture meets government requirements, and it will even automatically erase the background and replace it with a white background. There are two apps with the exact same name, "PASSPORT PHOTO," so look for the one that has this picture as its logo/avatar:
2. DOCUMENTS
- a birth certificate (or if you are an immigrant you need the documents for that)
- driver's license or I.D.
3. POST OFFICE (bring your own pen and bring 300 dollars cash per person, or a checkbook)
Don't go to a small post office or you will be stuck for hours. Google which one is the main one for your city. Go to the main one. I thought there would be hundreds of people there but as soon as I walked in, which was around 11 a.m. on a Monday, I just went straight to the counter without waiting, because there was almost no one else there. This was surprising because my local post office always has a long line and just one slow employee working, which is why I waited an entire year before getting a passport (I hate the post office that much).
The friendly clerk gave me a form to fill out and pointed out a sign-in desk. I signed in, then sat down and filled out the form.
The form asks for your address, phone, e-mail, and the names of your parents and when they were born and where they were born. By the time I finished filling out the form, the passport clerk called me. I was surprised because they say it normally takes hours of waiting.
If your passport is older than ten years or you lost it, or if your picture is ugly and you want a passport with the better picture, then just say you want a new one and you don't know where the old one is.
It only took about five minutes. The clerk took photocopies of my items, and had me sign something. Then asks me if I want "routine" or "expedited." I ask for "expedited" (fast processing). If your English is not good, memorize those two words so you don't get confused and ask for the wrong thing. My only language is English but I still got confused and didn't know what she was saying because she had a ghetto accent. Ask for "X - Paa - Dy - Tiit" (memorize that word if your English is bad or even if English is your only language). She will ask this question right after asking you to look at your information to okay it. So be prepared.
I was surprised that they took cash because on the website it says the government only takes checks or money orders. Altogether it was about $250 (not including the pictures that I took the previous week). Just bring $300 just to make sure you are okay.
They say it takes two or three weeks with expedited service. MAKE SURE YOU ASK FOR EXPEDITED OR ELSE IT WILL TAKE THREE MONTHS.
SURPRISE! The passport came in just ONE WEEK.
They actually sent me an e-mail two days earlier, giving me the exact day it would get to my home. However, they didn't put it in the mailbox. It was in a large express envelope, and they slid the empty half into the door-frame so that I could see it from the inside.
Just make sure someone is home on that day so that no one steals it. It's tough enough doing it once.