Ready to travel? Passport Fair is Saturday at main post office
Planning an international trip?
The Chattanooga main post office, 6050 Shallowford Road, will host a Passport Fair on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for area residents applying for or renewing a passport.
The fair serves residents of ZIP codes starting with 370-374 and 376-385 in Tennessee and 307 in North Georgia.
Travelers are encouraged to apply for a passport several months before they are scheduled to travel overseas. The average time for passport applications and renewals is six weeks. However, for an additional fee, the U.S. State Department will expedite the application and process it within three weeks.
The Postal Service also suggests travelers check the expiration date on their U.S. passport. Many countries require a passport to have as much as six months’ validity remaining for entry.
To apply for a passport, travelers need to complete Passport Application Form DS-11 (unsigned) and provide one of the following: a U.S. birth certificate from the Department of Vital Statistics (not a certificate of birth) or naturalization papers. Applicants also must show either a valid driver’s license, a previous or current U.S. passport book or card, Certificate of Naturalization, Certificate of Citizenship, military ID or a federal, state or municipal government employee ID card. Applicants 15 and younger must be present with both parents unless consent is given; ages 16 and 17 require only one parent be present.
No appointment is needed for the Passport Fair. Customers are served on a first-come, first-served basis, though there is a limited capacity for acceptance.
If you can’t attend the fair, the U.S. Postal Service has launched a USPS Retail Customer Appointment Schedule tool to schedule an appointment during regular passport processing hours. The tool is available at www.usps. com/scheduler.
Customers have the option of applying for a passport book (good for all international travel) or the passport card (good only for land and sea travel between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda).
Fees are $30 for adults (16 and older) and $15 for minors (under 16) for the passport card, $110 and $80 for the passport book and $140 and $95 for the passport card and book.
Fees must be paid with a personal check or money order. There is a $35 processing/acceptance fee and a $15 fee for photos, which can be paid for by cash, personal check, debit card, credit card or money order. The Chattanooga post office offers passport photo services, as do shipping centers, pharmacies and retail stores.
For more information about passport application requirements and to download forms, visit the State Department’s travel website at www.travel. state.gov.