Passport Expediting Services

Your trip is just days away, but when you pull your passport out of the safe you find it has expired. Yikes! Fortunately, there are companies who can solve the problem. Passport expediters increasingly have become a go-to resource for panicked travelers, especially since the tightening of border regulations since 2007. The departments of Homeland Security and State have already implemented a rule requiring a passport (or similar documentation) for air travel between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Bermuda or the Caribbean. By June 2009, a similar rule will take effect for land and sea travel.

The government offers expedited service to U.S. citizens, but it can take up to two weeks from when the application is received in the mail. If you need a passport within days, you're advised to visit one of only 13 regional passport agencies spread throughout the country. Expediting fees are $60, plus shipping, on top of the $75 to $100 cost for a new, renewed or replaced passport.

For those who are unwilling or unable to visit a regional agency, consider an expediting service that can walk you through the process and essentially take your place in line. The result? You can have that passport in as little as a day and delivered to your doorstep. Depending on the need for speed, these companies charge between $100 and $300 per person -- in addition to the fees charged by the government for the passport itself.

Though services can handle the filing, you're required to gather important identification materials (a birth certificate or an expired passport), fill out the paperwork, secure passport photos and go to a local processing center (typically a post office or courthouse) to have everything vetted and placed in a sealed envelope to be sent to the expediter. But after that, the services do take over. The best of them can also answer questions and make the process simpler.

Here are a few names of expediting services: RushMyPassport.com, It's Easy Passport, CIBT and A. Briggs Passport and Visa Expeditors.