ToujoursVoyager

Hello,

My experience might help someone renew their child's passport efficiently.

My eldest daughter is 4 years old and she only had 5 months remaining on her passport. We were to travel to England, Greece and Austria in three weeks. Reading online, it seems like 6 months validity was recommended on her passport but 3 months was necessary. So we were good. Or so I thought.

But as the trip was nearing, I called the airline to confirm that we were ok. They could not say either way. I called the official government website:

https://travel.state.gov/content/pas.../under-16.html

after being on hold for a while, the operator told me that I needed to renew my daughter's passport and gave me a date in the Miami location. I chose the first appointment of the day 8:30am, thinking that maybe just maybe they could get me a passport the same day. We don't live in Miami. We are 4 hours away.

I investigated the numerous private agency that promise a passport in 24 hours for 500$, but like it was stated on the official website, the child in question has to be physically present at the appointment. So I concluded that throwing my money at some agency was not going to help me if in the end we still needed to be physically present in Miami. Both parents were present in Miami.

We gave them her old passport, her original birth certificate with a copy, a driver for each of the parents with a copy of it, front and back, passport pictures, a copy of her plane ticket showing that it is in less than 2 weeks.

I had a lot more documents just in case...

Unprompted, the agency told us to come back at 2:30pm to pick up her bran new passport. Et voila.

We might not have needed a new passport, but I am glad it is done nevertheless.

doug_stallings

I'm glad it worked out, and this is pretty typical. And thanks for sharing this. I'm always glad to read stories that confirm you don't really need one of those agencies that charge an arm and a leg to renew a passport in an emergency situation (the US government charges enough already).

I realize this was very stressful and probably not a happy day for you all, but it's certainly possible to get a same-day replacement passport if you really need one.

And you likely really did need a new one. Austria has a more stringent passport validity requirement than the UK or Greece. Greece has a 6-month recommendation and a 3-month requirement, but Austria's is a 6-month requirement.

ToujoursVoyager

yes, the operator told me we were fine with England and Greece but not Austria. I am glad I called and verified it.

It was not too stressful more time consuming. Plus I had only myself to blame by not renewing it in a timely fashion. Never again

bussa17

I had the exact same problem! Most of sites are not clear enough regarding minimum validity of passports! almost had to cancel a big family trip for it!