The State Department Is Opening New Passport Agencies Across the U.S. — Here’s Where They’ll Be Located

The Department of State will add six new passport agencies across the United States in an effort to keep up with demand. 

The new passport agencies will open in Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Orlando, Charlotte, San Antonio, and Cincinnati, according to the State Department. With the new offices, the State Department will run a total of 35 passport agencies and centers.

It was not immediately clear when the new passport agencies would open.

“More Americans can travel abroad today than at any time in our history,” the State Department wrote in a statement, adding the new locations “reflect our commitment to provide prompt customer services to more Americans closer to where they live.”

The Department added: “While we undertake steps to establish these new agencies, we are issuing more passports than ever before while maintaining our passport processing times at our pre-pandemic levels.”

Passport agencies process applications for travelers with upcoming international trips within 14 days or with life-or-death emergencies. Appointments are required.

In addition to these passport agencies, the State Department offers more than 7,400 public passport acceptance facilities where travelers can submit their applications. These include post offices, public libraries, local government offices, and more.

The State Department also runs “Special Passport Acceptance Fairs” across the country. These fairs, which were originally created to speed up processing times for first time applicants, will be held this summer in Arizona, California, Florida, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Travelers can also now submit their passport renewal applications online, a service the State Department first started offering in 2022 but had since paused. Only travelers who currently live in the U.S. and have passports that were issued between 2009 and 2015 are eligible to renew online. Travelers also can’t renew online if they want to change things like their name.

Currently, the processing time for passports is six to eight weeks for routine service and two to three weeks for expedited service, which costs an additional $60, according to the State Department.