Posted on 08/27/2006 10:41:05 AM PDT by zook
My wife's dad just passed away over in Taiwan. She needs to get her passport renewed. The State Department's expedited service takes 2 weeks, but I see lots of commercial services on line promising 24 hour service, for a fee, of course. Can anyone tell me if these are reliable?
Thanks very much.
Call your local Congressman's office first thing in the morning.
Life or Death Emergencies Call The National Passport Information Center
Hope that helps.
Last year I went to the Houston Passport office and was able to renew in an hour.
http://www.passportexpress.com/?affid=Overture&source=overture
http://www.passportsandvisas.com/
I was going to tell him the same thing. It has been longer than 2 years since I did it but the Houston office was speedy.
My passport was stolen the day before a trip to Paris (way back when).....it was replaced (with a temporary) within a day. You can make it happen.
http://www.passportsandvisas.com/
I have used these folks. 24 hour service was around $500.00 with no visa needed. If you are in a city with passport service from the State Department, you can download the forms and do it yourself. I have never needed an emergency Taiwan visa.
Go to this page tomorrow morning:
http://travel.state.gov/passport/about/agencies/agencies_913.html
call the office nearest you, and explain your situation. I got my passport in Houston in 6 hours 3 years ago, and a person I work with did the same thing 2 months ago.
I used American Passport once. It is very expensive though, about triple what a passport is normally. But they work nicely.
And don't forget to tell the airline/travel agent exactly why she has to fly there on short notice. I don't know if they still offer this, but they did have greatly reduced/complimentary fares for close family after a death.
Be sure to check with the airline about this. Your price is generally the same as if you bought with a two week advance.
Several years ago I realized that my passport had expired two days before I was set to depart to Spain on a business trip. I was able to contact the Philadelphia office and was informed that as long as I could provide my old passport and show my plane tickets, they would do it "same day". Went off without a hitch.
I have not been to Taiwan since 91 but do remember that I had to visit the consulate to get a visa. Might want to look into whats involved in that.
They basically FedEx the paperwork and then walk it through.
Thank you all for your good ideas. I think we can work this out now.
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