Doug and I applied for our U.S. passports on January, 18th, 2020. Since we are going to Japan for military, we applied for our U.S. civilian passports. This will allow us to travel while we live in Japan. We have to apply for our military passport now that we have our civilian passports. The difference between the two is the military passport is the one we will use when flying on orders (when we first get to Japan and when we finally leave Japan). The civilian passport will allow us to come home during our three year stay in Japan.
How do you apply for a U.S. passport?
Well, you have to fill out a form (DS-11) you can print it out to fill out or fill out online (you have to print it out). Do not sign the DS-11 until you are with the person who is filing your application. Then you provide a U.S. Citizenship (Birth Certificate, Consular Report of Birth Abroad or Certification of Birth, Certificate of Naturalization, Certificate of Citizenship). You must also have a photocopy of your proof of U.S. citizenship. You must have an I.D. (driver’s license, military and/or dependent, green card, valid or expired passport). You will need a copy of your I.D. too. You may take your photo at the facility or bring in a photo taken at a place that does passport photos.
Here is the official website to help you out!
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/need-passport/apply-in-person.html
How we applied was first we set up an appointment at a local U.S. Post Office. We currently live in the suburbs of Denver and there is only one U.S. Post Office that does passport applications on Saturday. I just went onto their website and followed the steps to set up an appointment. The appointments are in 15 minute increments. We set up our appointment first thing in the morning to go get it over with and in case if they got busy we wouldn’t have to wait long. They do accept walk-ins but they have the right to refuse walk-ins (the day we went they had a sign saying they could not accept walk-ins).
Before we went, I made sure we had all the proper documentation. We filled out the DS-11 online and we printed them off. We did not sign the DS-11 until the person filing our application told us to. We had our birth certificates and copies of them (8.5 x 11). I had our marriage certificate (copies of it as well; we did not need it but we had it just in case). We both had our I.D.’s on us. We both had our photos (we had them taken at Walgreens). The only thing we did not have was copy of our I.D.’s (they were generous enough to make copies for us). Please make sure everything is spelled correctly on the DS-11 and your birth certificate and I.D.’s. The man who was helping us with our application was wonderful! He was former military stationed in Japan so we talked a lot about how excited we were for Japan. He made sure everything was in order. They do take your original birth certificate but they mail it back. We had to say an oath about how we would act responsible and then we signed the DS-11. There is a fee for applying for the passport. I know on the website the want you to bring in a money order or write a check (we brought our checkbook). At the Post Office we went to, we paid them and they printed out a money order. We paid $110 a piece for our passports (they have a chart on the website).
After you apply, you can check on your application! I checked my application and it said it would get here February 10th, 2020. Well today is February 5th, so we got ours quickly. I also noticed the return address on the envelope (it comes Priority Mail) and it came from Aurora (close by). It only took us two and a half weeks to get our passports. I know it can take six to eight weeks. The man at the Post Office told us that this time of year is not the busiest for passports so it won’t take the whole six to eight weeks. The summer time is usually a busy time for passports. You can also spend more money to expedite your passport if you need it sooner.
Please make sure everything is spelled correctly on the DS-11 and your birth certificate and I.D.’s.
I have story about this! My senior year in high school, my Dad and Step-mom wanted to take my two brothers and me on a cruise. So we went the local U.S. Post Office, with all the paper work to file for our passports. Well we were getting started and come to find out my Dad’s middle name was mis-spelled on one of my brother’s and mine’s birth certificate. We couldn’t apply for our passports until the birth certificates were fixed. My other brother got to file for his passport but my brother and me did not. In order to fix our birth certificates, my mom had to go to our state capital to fix it. It got fixed, but we never got our passports therefore we never went on that cruise.
Hale of a Journey 