There are many things that you should know when you want to get a new United States passport. There are seven steps that you must take during the application process and a few tips that can help you along the way. You will need to know the things that will help you to get your passport with ease like the fact that you have to go in person if you are a new applicant or under the age of sixteen.
The first thing that you must do is fill out the official application for a US passport. You must remember to not sign the application until you are told to as it could void your application and require that you have to fill out another one. Plus you should always include your social security number as if you do not, you could be denied at worse and at best it will be delayed for some time.
You must apply in person in some circumstances but even if that is not the case, you should still attempt to apply in person. There are a couple of different places where you could go to do this. You will have to find one of the available passport acceptance facilities or one of the passport agencies where you live. There are also online passport sites that can help you with this need.
The first thing that you have to prove when you are applying for a passport is the citizenship status that you have. This means that you will have to bring one of the necessary proofs of citizenship with you which could be a birth certificate from a United States city, a citizenship certificate, an undamaged old passport, a certificate of birth from a broad, or a naturalization certificate. It is going to be harder to get your passport if you do not have one of these items which can equate to delays or it taking longer for you to actually get your passport if you are able to get approved.
It is also necessary that you can easily be identified when you go to apply for your passport. You can do this through a variety of different forms of identification including a drivers’ license, a former US passport, naturalization certificate, military identification, and government identification. There are some instances in which you must provide additional information, like after a gender change surgery.
Even though you will have to show the original identifications in the office, you are going to need to have photocopies of them, too. These need to be on white paper that is eight in a half by eleven inches and has no other markings or information on it. Also remember that images can not be smaller than they really are.
The next thing that you will do is pay the fee. There is now the option for an additional card that is not the same as the book. The book and card together would currently cost around $165 while the book alone is $135 and the card is just $55. Prices are less for minors and less if you have owned a previous passport.
Finally you will just need to submit your passport photographs that you should already have taken to receive your new USA passport. Your picture must be a plain headshot where you are wearing standard clothes or nothing special. You will also need to make sure that you have two copies and they have to be the exact same. If you have last-minute travel plans, applying for a expedited passport might be necessary.
