The U.S. Department of State has released new dates through March for its special passport fairs around the country for travelers who must apply in person.
The special passport acceptance fairs will take place in states across the United States from Florida to New Jersey, Texas, and beyond. Travelers under the age of 16 or adults applying for the first time are eligible to attend. And while some locations require an appointment, others allow travelers to just show up.
On Thursday, the State Department released even more dates for January than it had previously scheduled along with dozens of dates and locations in February and two in March. These passport fairs are often scheduled at local libraries, community centers, or other civic locations.
A full list of dates and locations is available on the State Department’s website.
These passport fairs offer both routine and expedited service, which comes with an extra cost of $60. Currently, the processing time for routine service is four to six weeks, while the processing time for expedited service is two to three weeks.
Beyond these fairs, travelers renewing their passports can do so by mail or online, which the department fully rolled out late last year. Travelers can renew online if they are at least 25 years old, currently live in a U.S. state or territory, have a passport that expired less than five years ago, and have that old passport with them. Online applicants must not currently plan to change their name, sex, date of birth, or place of birth. Online renewals are offered with routine processing.
The addition of new in-person passport acceptance fairs comes as the State Department suspended the processing of passport applications that selected “X” as their gender following an executive order from President Donald Trump making it government policy to only recognize male and female sex in the country. Before that, the State Department had offered the option of selecting “X” under gender for years in addition to “male” and “female” options.