How to Get a Passport in One Day: (A Not So Thrifty Travel Tip)

Okay travelers, its Wunmi here and I just may be the perfect person to teach you how to get a passport in one day, because unfortunately I had to learn from experience. Sophia and I try our best to give you all the travel saving tips, but we are human afterall. We do sometimes get it wrong, make a huge mistake, and ultimately end up paying more. This was one of those moments.

For the record, I hope none of you find yourself in a position where you have to turn a passport around in one day. It is expensive and stressful and can quite honestly be avoided if you are responsible (oops). But crazy things happen and you may end up in a situation like I did where its two days before your international trip to Belize and you are checking into your flight, only to find out that your passport expired a few months ago.

In this post, I walk through the steps I took to get a passport in a day. I will do my best to spare you the drama and will try not to make it sound as traumatic as it felt. But hopefully by the end of it, you’ll know everything you need to know to pull off an emergency passport.

Step 1: Locate Your Nearest Regional Passport Agency/Acceptance Facility

The first thing you’ll want to do–after your moment of panic– is find your nearest Passport Agency, as they will be the issuers of the physical passport. My closest one was in Chicago, Illinois, which meant taking an entire day off of work to drive the two hours to the agency (I know, off to a great start). The best way to find your closest Passport Agency  is by looking it up on the regional agency site here or by calling the main line 1-877-487-2778. There are only 25 Agencies in the United States and you can find them in most major cities.

Step 2: Gather Your Documents

So you’ve found your nearest Passport Agency, now what? You’ll want to make sure you have all the required documents needed to get the physical passport. Now this is the most important step—nothing would be worse than getting all the way there and then getting rejected because you don’t have all the documents 100% correct. Let me break it down for you.

What You Will Need

• Birth Certificate & Driver’s License: These are what we call your Proof of Citizenship Documents. You’ll need the original copy in hand. Photo copies will be denied.
• Passport Form: I’d recommend filling it out and printing prior to arrival to save time. Depending on your situation, you may need to fill out a few forms.
• Photos: 2” x 2” color passport photo is required for them to scan and use for your book. Walgreens will take this for you for $10 and will make sure it meets all size and posture requirements.
• Proof of Travel: To support the need to expedite, you’ll want something that shows you will be traveling within the next 2-4 weeks (or 24 hours in my case). A printed flight confirmation works just fine.

Step 3: The Waiting Game

There is a good chance that if you are in need of a same day passport, you will not have made an appointment with the agency. This is okay—you can still get an emergency passport without an appointment. You will, however, probably be looking at a long wait. When I arrived, I had to wait around 4 hours before I was seen. I’d recommend getting to the agency as soon as it opens so you can beat the other people who are trying to drop in without an appointment. They will always prioritize those who have made appointments, but hang in there and you will eventually be seen.

Step 4: Approval & Retrieval

Once you are seen and approved for your same day passport, it unfortunately does not end there. You will then need to come back during their passport pickup hours to retrieve your newly printed passport. Depending on when the pickup hours are for your Passport Agency and when you get approved, you may have some hours to kill while you wait for the agency to reopen for pickup. For me, pickup hours were not until 4pm, so I had to keep myself busy for a few hours. Luckily, Chicago is a great city so I had plenty to see and do.

Step 5: Pay Up

This is the not so thrifty part. Last minute passports are not cheap and there is no way around it. I paid a $60 expedited fee in addition to the standard application fee of $110.  If you add in my two hour drive to Chicago and $10 passport photos, total cost of this little adventure was over $200.

Despite how smooth it may appear in this post, nothing about this emergency passport process was quick or easy. I fumbled my way through these steps and made so many mistakes along the way. There were lots of tears and moments where I came to terms with not making it to Belize. But after hours of last minute scrambling, I was able to get my passport. I made it to Belize and had one of the best trips of my life.

The big learning here is that a lost passport or an expired date doesn’t have to be a deal breaker for your trip. Follow these steps and you’ll have a fresh new passport in no time (you just might be a little more broke).

THINGS I WISH I WOULD HAVE KNOWN

• Passport pickup hours are not at the same time as passport issue hours.
• Proof of citizenship must be in its original form. Photocopies will be denied.
• It’s advised to check your passport 2-3 months prior to an international trip (go figure).
• Emergency passports are not cheap.

COST OF THIS ADVENTURE

• Walgreens Passport Photos: $10
• Passport Renewal Cost: $110
• Expedited Passport Fee: $60
• Transportation to Passport Agency: $30

TOTAL COST: $210 US Dollars

Be sure to check out our About page to learn more about the Thrifty Girls behind the post! Comment/Like below.

Also, leave your instagram links below…we’d love to check out your awesome feeds!