How do I make an appointment?

Our passport agencies and centers offer two types of appointments: Life-or-Death Emergency Service and Urgent Travel Service. You must call us to make one of these appointments. Follow the steps on how to apply on each agency and center webpage. 

What is changing about our appointment policy?

At 10 p.m. ET on Wednesday, July 21, we temporarily disabled the online booking system for Urgent Travel Service to ensure our very limited appointments go to applicants who need them for urgent travel. We will continue to honor appointments you scheduled before 10 p.m. ET on Wednesday, July 21 using our online system. You must call us if you want to schedule a new appointment or change your existing appointment. 

This change only impacts appointments at the U.S. Department of State's 26 passport agencies and centers. This change does not impact the appointment booking process at passport acceptance facilities which include post offices, libraries, and other local government offices. 

Why are you making this change?

We are making this change to address the problem of third parties booking appointments online using automated programs, or bots, and then selling these appointments to customers with urgent travel needs. We are not affiliated with any third-party appointment booking services, and we do not charge a fee to make an appointment. 

Third parties booked all available appointments within minutes of the appointments being posted online which prevented many of you from making urgent appointments, and made it difficult to determine whether your appointment was legitimate or fraudulent.

Calling us will improve your ability to make an appointment in the following ways:

• Our call center representatives will provide you unique confirmation information that our staff will verify on the day of your appointment. If you are not the true appointment holder, you will be turned away on the day of your appointment.
• The unique confirmation information will allow us to verify your appointment is legitimate, and ensure you are not being scammed.
• The new process will ensure third-party services cannot book appointments. 
• If you need to cancel or change your appointment, please call us. Your appointment will be assigned to a new customer calling to make an appointment. You cannot transfer your appointment to another customer.
• While you will need to wait to speak with a customer service representative to book an appointment, we have added staff to handle the increased call volume, and updated our phone menus to help streamline the experience and reduce wait times.

We appreciate your patience as we ensure appointments go to the applicants who truly need them.