Earlier this year, I hit a milestone: For the first time, I filled up an entire passport with stamps. It felt like an accomplishment until I realized that, despite having three years left until the document expired, I had to renew it at a time when people were complaining of monthslong waits.
I have at least one trip per month scheduled through October. I didn’t see how I was going to be able to send my passport in for renewal and receive the new one before I left for my next assignment. It’s also nearly impossible to get through to a passport agency over the phone right now — believe me, I tried — so scheduling an appointment for a same-day passport wasn’t an option.
“Why don’t you just apply for a second passport?” my boss asked when I gave him a heads-up that I’d likely have to cancel my next couple of work trips. Stunned, I told him I didn’t know that was even a thing. But he was right — it’s possible for Americans who meet certain conditions to be granted a secondary passport book.
With just a month and a few days before my next scheduled trip, I applied. It might have saved me some time versus applying for a standard renewal of my original passport. Here’s how I navigated the process and why it might help you, too, if you qualify.
The criteria
To be approved for a second U.S. passport, you have to meet at least one of three conditions:
- You have stamps in your passport that could result in denied entry to another country (i.e., an Israeli stamp in some countries).
- You have more than one international trip coming up, and you need to get visas, meaning your current passport will be out of your possession for some time.
- You can prove your job requires you to travel frequently. Flight attendants, pilots and journalists covering foreign news, for example, likely qualify for a second passport.
Because I’m a travel journalist, I qualified under the last one and set to work on figuring out how to procure my backup passport.
Related: You can visit these 4 gorgeous overseas locales without a U.S. passport
The particulars
There are two ways you can apply, depending on your situation. I couldn’t part with my passport in order to send it in, which was the whole reason I couldn’t do the standard renewal in the first place.
So, I skipped the DS-82 form, which is used for standard renewals and second passport requests, where applicants send in their primary passports. Instead, I filled out the DS-11 form — the same form used when applying for your first passport or for a new passport if you’ve been without one for 15 years or more.
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While filling out the DS-11, I learned that I’d have to submit my application in person at an acceptance facility — in most cases, including mine, a post office — since I’d have to use my original birth certificate instead of my passport as proof of citizenship.
I also learned I could choose to have my secondary passport fitted with a larger number of pages for free, as is possible when you obtain a primary passport. My primary passport had a smaller number of pages. Having learned my lesson, I opted for the more sizable book.
Finally, I found out that a secondary passport comes with four-year validity. That differs from the 10-year shelf life of a standard passport. A second U.S. passport is also ineligible for renewal.
Related: Here’s how to avoid a 7-week passport renewal saga
The application
To submit your application in person at a designed acceptance facility, you have to make an appointment. I started by using the U.S. Department of State’s acceptance facility finder, which allows you to find the facility closest to you. After that, I made an appointment directly on the United States Postal Service’s website.
On the day of my April appointment, I gathered my printed application form, two passport photos that I had taken at CVS a few days prior, my driver’s license for identity verification, my checkbook for the application fee ($130, plus $60 for expedited processing and an additional $19.53 for one-to-two-day shipping) and my credit card for the post office’s $35 acceptance fee.
Additionally, I wrote a letter stating why I was applying and outlining all of my upcoming trips, along with proof of booking and a letter from my employer. I also took my current passport, just in case, but it wasn’t needed.
I arrived on time for my appointment, and the woman at the counter checked my application to make sure it was properly filled out. You’re supposed to leave the signature area blank, which I did. She had me sign it in front of her to compare against the signature on my ID, of which she then made a photocopy. She took my birth certificate and my check for the application fee, packaged them all up, and sent them off for me.
I paid the $35 acceptance fee to the post office, and I was on my way — but not before I was informed that even expedited processing was taking seven to nine weeks. From there, all I could do was hold my breath, even though the odds didn’t look good.
Related: What’s the difference between a passport book and a passport card?
The wait
Fast forward to May, and the day of my next assignment — a trip to Greece for the launch of a new cruise ship — was nigh. I decided to go ahead as scheduled and hope that the customs and border protection officers in Athens would be OK with stamping my passport on one of the “notes” pages. (I already had a couple of stamps there, thanks to other agents who previously hadn’t paid attention to where they were putting the visas.) I figured that, worst case, they wouldn’t let me in, they’d put me on the next flight back home, and I’d have a story either way.
As luck would have it, neither of those scenarios materialized. Instead, something totally unexpected happened. Five minutes after I left to drive to the airport, my mom called.
“You’re not going to believe this,” she said. “The mail just came, and I think you got your passport.”
I turned around, drove back home and grabbed it, marveling at the timing. From there, the trip went off without a hitch.
Related: Here’s what to expect from the US’s new passport design
Bottom line
I had to do some homework in order to figure out the application process for a second passport, but it was worth it. I received it exactly a month and two days after submitting my application. My birth certificate even arrived in the same envelope. (Often, proof of citizenship is returned separately via untracked postage — a concept that always makes me nervous.)
There’s no telling whether using this process instead of a standard renewal is what helped me to receive the new passport faster. A couple of my TPG colleagues applied for renewals around the same time, and the results varied. One received hers within three weeks, while another waited three months and narrowly missed having to cancel a vacation to Paris.
Obtaining a second U.S. passport isn’t an option for everyone, but in my case, it provided me with a usable passport in enough time that I was able to seamlessly embark on my scheduled travels. It just might work for you, too, if you meet at least one of the criteria.
