With our Japan trip coming up next month (!!), we knew we would need to move fast to get our newborn daughter’s passport. We did a lot of prep work in advance, which I detailed here, to ensure we would have it in time for our trip.
Then, surprise! While working through all of her paperwork, we found that Tyler’s passport would fall into the six-month expiration window during our trip. This isn’t necessarily an issue for Canada or Japan (I checked the State Department site), but some airlines, as well as many countries, won’t allow you to travel if your passport is within six months of expiration. At least we caught it in time to renew, and we threw together his renewal application to send out when we sent our baby girl’s.
Now, timelines have varied significantly for passport applications over the last couple years, but in our case, expedited processing was truly expedited – especially over the holidays! This is what both the adult and child application timelines looked like for us:
• December 15 – We had photos taken and submitted materials in-person at the post office for our child passport. The adult passport renewal application was mailed at the same time.
Side note: I recommend taking the photos at the post office, it’s so convenient (and only $15). Plus, you can feel confident that the photos will meet the requirements!
• December 20 – The adult passport renewal application moved to “in process” on the passport status website, located here:
• December 21 – The child passport application moved to “in process.” At this point, I signed up for email updates!
• December 27 – I received an email that the child passport application was approved and being printed. In the email, it stated that it should be received around December 30.
• December 30 – Right on time, we received our baby girl’s passport! Just fifteen days after her appointment at the post office.
• January 2 – Tyler got an email that his adult renewal application was approved and being printed. In the email, it stated that his passport should arrive around January 5.
• January 5 – As expected, Tyler’s passport arrived! Three weeks to the day after he mailed out his paperwork. Now we’re just waiting for the return of their documents (birth certificate, old passport), which we expect to arrive this week.
All in, the process for both the child passport application and the adult passport renewal took between 2-3 weeks. We did pay for expedited service, which we felt was worth the upcharge, but we were told at the post office that we would potentially have been okay with standard service. I definitely appreciate that we no longer have to worry about this. In fact, we already have our daughter’s flight tickets and her conditional approval for Global Entry!
Take this as a reminder to check your passport expiration dates. And if you need to renew quickly, not all hope is lost – expedited service is a solid option that I would definitely recommend!
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