Hopefully, you’ll never find yourself scrambling to get an emergency passport before a trip. However, sometimes bad things happen to good people. You could lose your passport right before an international trip or get called out of the country to deal with a sudden emergency. The US government does provide a process for people who need emergency passports to apply at one of the 15 US Passport Agency offices. You must appear in person, and you must make an appointment first. After you’ve made your appointment, here’s what you need to bring with you when you go:

What if you need an emergency passport, but you can’t make it to a US Passport Agency office? In that case, you can still get an emergency passport by using a private passport expediting company like RushMyPassport.com. For a fee, expediting companies will deliver your application by hand to a US Passport Agency office and then return it you.  You can have your passport in as little as 24 hours without ever having to make an appointment, drive to an office or wait in line!