Passport appointments are such hot commodities that the State Department, the federal agency responsible for issuing passports, disabled their online booking system, saying that third parties were taking all the bookings and then selling them on the black market.

A State Department spokesperson blamed the lack of appointments on Covid and said they are working on improving their passport services. 

“I’ve had people break down in tears. I’ve had people threaten to go do something—to which I say, ‘Do not go make a ruckus at a post office, because you’d be committing a federal crime,’” said Phillip Monares, who helps people obtain passports through his company, Bay Document Services. “People who never checked to see if their passports are valid may have just lost all the money they invested in a family vacation.”

In order to renew their  passports on short notice, people with the means to do so are resorting to desperate measures. It’s not unusual for his customers to fly to Arizona, Texas or even as far as Hawaii for an open appointment with the federal passport agency, Monares said. Another customer rerouted his trip to Europe via Buffalo, N.Y. 

Adults who plan ahead can bypass the inconvenience of waiting in long lines because they can renew passports via mailing them in. However, current processing times are eight to 11 weeks, and expedited processing times are five to seven weeks, according to a State Department spokesperson. Before Covid, routine processing times were only six to eight weeks.

Adults who don’t plan ahead may get a passport within two weeks of travel, either by lucking out into a last-minute appointment with a passport agency—in San Francisco, the agency is located at the federal building at 450 Golden Gate Ave.—or by paying a passport expediter around $700.

Need a passport ASAP? 

• If it’s a life-or-death situation (you’ll need proof), you may be able to get a passport within three days of travel.

• If you have an existing passport, do not mail it in: it can take up to three months to get a new one right now. You’ll need to call to make in-person appointment with one of the state department’s local passport agencies or otherwise pay for a passport expediting service. If you are able to get an in-person appointment, you can usually get your new passport book on the same day. If you pay for a passport expediting service, they can get you a new passport within two weeks of travel, because they have special access to the passport agency.

• If the passport is for a child under 16, or if you don’t have an existing passport (either because you lost it or you are a first-time applicant), you’ll need to first go to a “passport acceptance facility,” where you will bring required documents like birth certificates. In San Francisco, there is only one such facility, a post office in the Bayview (at 1300 Evans St.) that accepts walk-ins.