Expedited Passports

How long your passport will remain valid depends on what type of passport you’ve received.  Child passports issued to children ages 16 and under are only valid for 5 years after the date they were printed. Passports issued to adults and teens aged 16 and older are generally valid for 10 years.

However, in certain circumstances, such as an emergency trip or to replace a passport that was lost or stolen overseas, the Department of State will issue a limited passport. A limited passport is usually only valid for one year. However, once you are back in the United States, you do  have the option of converting it to a regular passport with the appropriate documents.

The new passport card is valid for the same length of time as regular passport-10 years for adults and teens aged 16 or older, and 5 years for kids aged 15 and under. However, remember that whether it’s expired or not, the passport card cannot be used for air travel. You need a passport book if you are flying to another country.

If the expiration date on your passport is approaching,  it’s a good idea to check the travel requirements of the country you are visiting before you leave. Even though a passport is still technically valid until the expiration date, many countries require that you have at least 6 months left or they won’t let you in.

The Department of State recommends renewing your passport at least 9 months before it expires. At the bare minimum, you should allow at least 2 months for your passport renewal to be processed with regular processing.

If you need your passport renewed in a hurry, your best bet is to use a private passport expediting company. A good expediting company will give you instructions on filling out the paperwork, so your application goes through the first time. They will also hand-deliver it to the US Passport Agency for you for super-fast processing, so your new passport can be on its way to you in as little as 24 hours.

Don’t wait until it’s too late…renew your passport today!

According to the Telegraph, a British woman who legally changed her name to Mrs. Pudsey Bear to help raise money for charity was denied a passport by the British government.  The 37-year-old woman, born Eileen De Bont, changed her name to raise £4,000 for the BBC charity Children in Need. She has changed her name successfully on her bank account, credit cards and tax records, but the Identity & Passport Service refused to issue her a passport in the new name, saying they considered the name change “frivolous.”

Could this happen here? Can you get a US passport with a name like “Pudsey Bear,” or will the US Department of State turn you down?

Have no fear, Pudsey Bears of the United States! In the US, if you can convince a judge to change your name to Pudsey Bear, you can convince the US Passport Agency as well.

To request a name change on your passport, all you need to do is fill out the appropriate passport form (DS-5504 if your passport was issued less than 1 year ago, DS-82 if it was issued more than 1 year ago). Send the form in with a copy of the court order supporting your name change, passport photos and any applicable fees, and in a couple of months, you’ll get your new passport.

If you are traveling within the next couple of months, it’s a good idea to use a passport expediting service to speed up the process.  An expediting company will provide you with detailed guidance on how to fill out the paperwork, so you’ll know everything is in order. Then, they’ll deliver your passport name change application directly to the US Passport Agency for faster processing. With an expediting company, you could have a passport with your new name on it (however silly that name may be) on its way to you in as little as 24 hours!

Get your name changed on your US passport the easy way!

As the earth’s temperature rises, some of the most beautiful places in the world are changing forever.  A warmer planet means fewer glaciers and rising sea levels, both of which endanger certain famous tourist destinations. Here are five spots that are particularly threatened-get a fast passport to see them before it’s too late!

Venice, Italy

Many of the buildings in this ancient Italian city were built on wooden piles sunk into the Venetian lagoon. The city has been slowly sinking for years, and rising sea levels pose an increasing threat to the Serenissima’s famous art and architecture.

Great Barrier Reef, Australia

The Great Barrier Reef is a delicate, complex ecosystem built on the skeletons of colonies of living creatures called coral. Coral is extremely sensitive to changes in water temperature and water chemistry, which can cause a phenomenon known as bleaching. When this happens, the colorful living coral die and leave ghostly white skeletons behind. The Great Barrier Reef has already experienced some bleaching, and its expected to get worse in the decades to come.

Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Mt. Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa. A dormant volcano covered by a glacier, it is a favorite destination for climbers around the world. However, the famous “snows of Kilimanjaro” may soon exist only in memory. The ice cap on top of Kilimanjaro is melting, although scientists disagree as to whether this is due to increased temperatures or less precipitation. Either way, the glaciers are disappearing, and may be gone completely as early as 2015 or 2020.

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

The Galapagos Islands, famous for the remarkable biodiversity that helped inspire Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, are also threatened by climate change.  Changes in sea levels and in the salinity of the ocean water around the islands are disrupting the delicate ecological balance that the people and wildlife that live on the islands depend on.

Swiss Alps

The glaciers in the Swiss Alps are melting, too. Some reports estimate they will be gone completely by 2030 to 2050. If you’ve always to go on a ski holiday in Switzerland, now is the time to do it.

If you’re planning a trip to any of these destinations, remember to apply  for a passport several months in advance. Even with the government’s expedited passport service, you should allow at least 3 weeks before your departure date.

If you need a passport more quickly, a private passport expediting company can provide you with hassle-free fast passport service.  An expediting service will personally deliver your application to the US Passport Agency, resulting in processing times that can be as fast as 24 hours.

In addition to providing fast passport service, expediting companies also provide more personal attention and can help make sure your application is submitted correctly the first time.

Are you ready to travel? Try our  fast passport service today!

There are a couple of different options when it comes to passport renewal in Miami, Florida. First, you may be able to renew by mail. Passport renewal by mail is an option for you if:

• You have your old US passport and it has not been damaged or mutilated.
• You got your old passport when you were 16 or older and it is less than 15 years old.
• You have legal documentation to submit for any name changes.

If you have to apply in person, you can find the nearest Passport Application Acceptance Facility and submit your application there.  Be sure to apply early and allow at least a couple of months to receive your passport with regular processing. Even with the government’s expedited processing option, it can still take at least 3 weeks for you to receive your new passport.

If you are traveling or need to apply for a visa in 14 days or less, you can schedule an appointment with the Miami Regional Passport Agency office. This can be somewhat of a hassle.  Appointments are free, but only available from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm, so most people will have to get time off work. You cannot be more than 15 minutes early to the appointment, or they won’t let you in. If you are more than 15 minutes late, you have to schedule a new appointment.

Even after you arrive at your appointment, you may not be seen immediately. Instead, you will have to take a number and wait to be called. Waiting times can vary depending on how busy the office is.

If you don’t have time to go through all of that, there is an easier way to get fast  passport renewal services in Miami. RushMyPassport.com, one of the nation’s leading passport expediters, can expedite your passport renewal from our office near Miami in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Our services are nationwide, but if you live in Miami you can drop your application off at our office and pick your passport up when its ready, instead of having to FedEx your application materials. There’s no need for an appointment, and we offer processing times as low as 24 hours.  We’re open from 9 am to 6 pm, so we also have more convenient hours than the Miami Regional Passport Agency office.

Renew your passport with us today!

Did you know that the government keeps a copy of each application you submit for passport service, including copies of the evidence you submitted to prove your citizenship?

If you’d like a copy of these records for any reason, here’s how to get them:

If your passport was issued after 1925, the records are stored with US Passport Services.  To get them, you’ll need to submit a notarized request in writing. Your request must include the following information:

• Your full name and any names you used previously (birth name, married name, etc). If you are requesting a child’s record, include their name, too.
• When and where you (or your child) were born
• Your address
• Your current phone number
• Your e-mail address, if you have one
• The reason you need the records
• The approximate date the passport was issued
• Passport numbers and any other information that you think will help Passport Services find the records for you.
• A copy of your photo ID.

It’s free to get a copy of your own records or those of your children, but if you’re requesting records for anyone else it’s $60.00.  Certified copies are $30.00 for the first copy and $20.00 for each additional copy. If you’re requesting passport records for anyone other than yourself or your child, you’ll need send their notarized consent, proof of guardianship, their death certificate or a court order allowing you to have access to the records.

Once you have assembled all the paperwork, mail it with any applicable fees to:

Department of State
Passport Services
Research and Liaison Section
Room 500
1111 19th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20524-1705 (202) 955-0447

What if you want copies of records for people born before 1925, perhaps for a geneaology project? In that case, you’ll need to contact the National Archives at the following address:

National Archives and Records Administration
Archives 1
Reference Branch
8th & Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC

Remember, if you’re applying for a new passport, the fastest and easiest way to get passport services is to use a private expediting company. An expediting company can help you fill out the paperwork and will get your passport to you quickly, with processing times as low as 24 hours!

Order expedited  passport services today, and see how fast and easy it can be to get a passport!

Before Spanish conquistadors discovered South America, the Incas ruled the largest empire on the continent from their capital in what is now Peru.  They kept records using a system of knotted ropes called quipus, constructed awe-inspiring stone buildings without the aid of modern technology (or even the wheel),  and conquered a territory that stretched from modern-day Ecuador to Chile.

Today, other than small artifacts like ceramics and the mysterious quipus, all that remains of the Incan Empire is a series of deserted temples and cities surrounded by jungle.  These cities have become well-known tourist attractions. Macchu Picchu, an Incan city near Cuzco, is famous for its massive  temple, the Temple of the Sun.

If you’d like to see Macchu Picchu for yourself, now is the time to go. NileGuidance has a post up with some great last-minute travel deals to South America. For example, if you take advantage of AeroMexico’s Much More Than Mexico sale, you could snag round-trip tickets to Lima for between $298 to $349, depending on your departure city.  The Spirit Air special mentioned in the NileGuidance post has expired, but tickets from Ft. Lauderdale to Lima are currently available on the Spirit Air website for $169 each way.

However, these offers are only good for a limited time. The Spirit Air offer must be booked by midnight tonight, and the deadline for the AeroMexico offer is May 8th.

So, if you want to take advantage of these deals, you’ll need to get express passport service if you don’t already have a passport. To make sure your trip goes off without a hitch,  it’s a good idea to use a private passport expediting company to submit your application.  If you apply for express passport service from the government, you’ll need to allow at least 3 weeks before your departure date for processing time. If you order an express passport from an expediting company, the processing time can be as little as 24 hours!

Are you ready to travel? Order your express passport today!

Michigan has decided to offer an Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL), which its citizens can use instead of a passport for quick trips into Canada. Like the newer passports, the enhanced driver’s license has a radio frequency identification chip to provide stronger identification, so it is WHTI-compliant for land and sea trips to Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. The final phase of the WHTI goes into effect June 1, 2009. After that date, you will need a passport or an enhanced driver’s license to cross the border. Currently, Michigan is one out of only four states to offer the EDL.

However, it’s important to remember that, like the new passport card, the EDL won’t work for air travel.  That’s why it’s best to only use it in place of a passport for quick jaunts across the border by car.  For extended stays, a passport is still best, even if you’re driving.  After all, if something were to come up and you needed to fly home quickly, you would want to have a passport, wouldn’t you?

Remember, the new rules for border crossing go into effect on June 1, so if you’re a frequent international traveler, you’d better apply for passport, quick!

If you apply for a passport with regular processing,  you should allow 2 to 3 months for it to arrive, just to be on the safe side. If you order through the government with expedited processing, expect to wait at least 3 weeks. However, faster passport processing service is available through private passport expediting companies.  These companies hand-deliver your passport to the US Passport Agency for processing-it’s basically the equivalent of being whisked to the front of the line, so you can get your passport processed in as little as 24 hours.

Need a passport? Apply with us today to get a passport quickly and conveniently!

Passports are not just important travel documents. They also provide a record of where you’ve been. Each time you visit a new country, you get a new stamp on your passport.  The US Department of State understands that passports mean  a lot to people, so after you renew your passport, they’ll cancel the old one and send it back to you.

What can you do with an expired passport? You can’t travel with it, of course. You can leave it in a drawer and flip through it occasionally when you feel like reminiscing about trips you’ve taken in the past. But why not be a little more creative? Here are some other ideas:

Make a Scrapbook

If you (or a family member) likes to scrapbook, why not create a scrapbook based on your cancelled passport? Along with the stamped passport pages, you can include photographs from the trips you’ve taken and mementos like pressed flowers or train tickets. If you like to journal in your scrapbooks, you can include a written description of some of your favorite moments from each adventure.

Remember, if you damage or mutilate your passport before it expires, you’ll have to get a new one before you can travel again.  So, if your passport is still valid, you might want to start the scrapbook now, while your memory is still fresh, and leave spaces to add passport pages and visa stamps once the passport has expired. (more…)

For most people, the fastest way to get a passport is to use a private passport expediting company. An expediting company is a private company that will deliver your passport directly to the US Passport Agency, putting it at the top of the stack for faster processing.  To see why an expediting company is the fastest solution, let’s compare this option with the other options available for getting a passport quickly.

First, If you apply for expedited service from the US government, you’ll still need to allow at least 3 weeks for your passport application to be processed.  This is true even if you pay for overnight delivery to and from the passport agency. An expediting company can have it processed in as little as 24 hours!

Of course, you also have the option of making an appointment at a US Regional Passport Agency to turn in your application yourself. However, consider that you will probably have to take time off work to do so, since the agencies have limited hours of operation. Also, consider the cost and the time involved in driving to the nearest regional passport agency-there are only 15 of them in the United States, so the nearest agency could be hours away from you. Depending on where you live, you might even have to take a plane to get there!

With an expediting company, all you have to do is go to a local acceptance agency (usually a library or a post office) to have your documents “sealed.” Then, you send the package to the expediting company, and they do everything else for you. There’s no appointment needed, and no waiting in line.

RushMyPassport.com is a leader in the passport expediting field for both speed and customer service.  If you need a passport quickly, don’t wait…Order your passport from us today!

Wedding season is almost here! May and June are two of the most popular months for couples to tie the knot.  While many couples look back on their wedding day as the happiest day of their lives,  planning the wedding is another matter entirely. The months before the wedding can test the patience of even the most committed couple. One way to cut down on pre-wedding stress is to have a destination wedding.

Destination weddings are easier to plan because most of the planning is done for you.  Venues that offer destination weddings will typically take care of food, the cake, decorations and the ceremony itself.

The first step in planning a destination wedding is to choose a destination.  This excellent post has some great ideas for destination weddings abroad.  Imagine getting married on the gorgeous Mediterranean island of Crete, or holding your ceremony surrounded by the ancient grandeur of Venice!

While having your wedding in another country may seem extravagant, it’s often not much more expensive than having a wedding near home simply because you can pare down the guest list. Plus, there are a lot of great deals available on airfare and hotels right now.

The most popular type of destination wedding is probably a beach wedding…after all, how can you be stressed out with the sound of the ocean in the background? Gadling reports that Ritz-Carlton resorts have an excellent destination wedding special right now that includes a free ceremony, spa treatments and a romantic breakfast for the lucky couple, and a free three-night stay for your one-year anniversary!

(more…)