All About US Government Passport Offices

To travel abroad, a citizen of the United States needs to obtain a passport. The State Department's Office of American Citizens Services and Crisis Management has administered an extensive program, which informs the public of various conditions that potentially can affect safety and security of those traveling. Given the times, traveling abroad has to be met with various precautions and regulations.

There are two distinct institutions that offer passport services: regional passport offices than provide an individual with the application, necessary procedures and paperwork associated with the process of obtaining a passport. And there is a US government passport office, which is a processing center. These particular offices contain all the resources necessary, for not only, processing information concerning the passport, but actually making the document itself.

There are over 9,500 regional passport offices in the United States of America. Although these offices are prevalent, they lack the resources to tangibly create the passport. The information obtained from the individual and the application itself is forwarded to a US government passport office, where employees will create the passport. Going through a regional passport office or agency takes at least 4-6 weeks for the passport to be created. When compared to a US government passport office, which can make the crucial document in the same day, this time frame is exceptionally sluggish.

That being said, there is a limited amount of US government passport offices in the United States. Currently, only 20 major cities possess a US government passport office. Although more are being developed and constructed, this number disables many people (especially those in rural or less-densely populated areas) from obtaining a passport in a timely fashion.

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