For customers planning international trips, three post offices in Tennessee and one in northern Georgia are hosting Passport Fairs on Saturday, April 14.
Fairs serve customers on a first-come, first-served basis. No appointments are needed. (There is a limited capacity for acceptance.)
Locations include the Arlington post office, 5885 Airline Road, Arlington, TN; hours: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Other passport fairs will be in Camden and Jackson, both in Tennessee, and in Trenton, Ga.
Customers have the option of applying for a passport book (good for all international travel) or the passport card (good only for land and sea travel between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda).
Fees for adults (ages 16 and older) are $30 for a passport card, $110 for a passport book and $140 for both. Fees for minors are $15, $80 and $95 respectively. The fees must be paid with a personal check or money order.
There is a $35 processing/acceptance fee and a $15 fee for photos, which can be paid for by cash, personal check, debit and credit cards or money order. Passport Fair offices offer passport photo services.
Travelers are encouraged to apply for a passport several months before they are scheduled to travel overseas. The average time for passport applications and renewals is six weeks. However, for an additional fee, the State Department will expedite the application and process it within three weeks.
To apply for a passport, travelers need to complete Passport Application Form DS-11 (unsigned) and provide one of the following: a U.S. birth certificate from the Department of Vital Statistics (not a certificate of birth) or naturalization papers.
Applicants must also show either a valid driver’s license, a previous or current U.S. passport book or card, Certificate of Naturalization, Certificate of Citizenship, military I.D. or a federal, state or municipal government employee I.D. card.
Applicants 15 and under must be present with both parents unless consent is given; ages 16 and 17 require only one parent to be present.
The Postal Service suggests travelers check the expiration date on their U.S. passport. Many countries require a passport have as much as six months’ validity remaining for entry.
For more information, visit travel.state.gov.
