We’re super excited to travel internationally with Isla, and with her first trip about 9 months away, we decided it was passport time! Although the Department of State has a pretty solid step by step for passport applications for children under 16, we wanted to share our experience and make the terminology a little more approachable after going through the process.
Passport offices operate in a similar way to DMVs...because of that, I would not recommend showing up without an appointment. Use this search to find offices near you that accept applications - it’s most likely going to be a post office or courthouse.
You can also go directly to the USPS site to search for facilities and make an appointment through there. Most likely, your appointment is going to be 3 weeks to a month away, leaving plenty of time to get your paperwork together!
Okay, so as you’re booking your appointment, you’ll see an option with photo services. DON’T TRUST THEM. We showed up expecting to have Isla’s photo taken, and the employee (who covers appointments over the whole area) told us they ran out of film. Basically, they just rely on Walgreens or CVS to deliver film to them every once in a while, with no idea when more is coming or how much they’re getting.
Save yourself the trouble of having to load back up in the car and find a pharmacy. Head to your local CVS or Walgreens, and they will take and print your child’s photo for $14.99. They have a passport photo approver that the image is run through to guarantee no issues.
You might want to save yourself that $15, but it’s so not worth trying to come up with a picture that meets their criteria. We tried with Brooke’s passport a few years ago to do it ourselves, and had the application sent back a couple times before we swallowed our pride and went to get it taken.
The Form Filler online is super easy! I’d highly recommend filling it all out online and then printing, rather than printing and filling it out by hand. If you don’t have access to a printer, forms are available at processing offices - I would probably run up and grab one before the day of your appointment if it’s convenient, just to avoid that extra time in the office.
Okay, here’s a major beef I have with this process for minors: TWO parent/guardians have to be present in order to get a passport, which is such a point of privilege. There are so many reasons someone could be growing up with only one parent, but this is especially suppressive of the Black community, which is statistically significantly more likely to only have one parent. There are ways around this, which include bringing court ordered custody paperwork, incarceration paperwork, or a death certificate. But yeesh, you shouldn’t have to relive trauma to get your kid their passport.
Anyways, for your child, you must bring proof of citizenship. This could be an original birth certificate (which you can lookup how to find here if you’ve misplaced one), a valid (can be expired) passport - probably don’t have that if it’s a baby, or a certificate of citizenship.
For the parents or guardians, you must provide a photocopy of proof of citizenship. Our passport office had a copier if needed, but I would call ahead of time to make sure, if you don’t have access to one yourself. This could be a driver’s license, birth certificate, passport, or certificate of citizenship, and both sides must be photocopied on white 8.5x11 paper.
You must also prove your parental relationship, which the birth certificate works for, or bring custody papers or adoption papers.
Last, but definitely not least, bring your photo with you!
When you apply, you’re going to pay two separate fees: one to the processing center, and one to the US Department of State. You can pay the processing center with credit, debit, cash, or check. But, the payment that gets sent off with your passport must be either cash or check. So, make sure you’re bringing the proper form of payment with you! For your passport book, it’s $80. And for the processor, it’s $35. So $115 total to get their book.
Once submitted, your quoted wait time is 18 weeks. Our processor gave us a “wink, wink” and said it’s usually faster, but that’s what they have to tell you. And once complete, you’ll receive two different packages: the first will be your child’s passport, the second their birth certificate. If you need it sooner than that, you can pay to have it expedited for $60. But like….don’t put yourself in that situation if at all possible.
Overall, other than our post office being out of film, we found the process to be really easy! Just make sure to give yourself plenty of time, and come prepared, and it was about 15 minutes in and out!
