PASSPORT INFORMATION

Who Needs a Passport?
A U.S. citizen needs a passport to depart or enter the United States and to enter and depart most foreign countries. Exceptions include short-term travel between the United States and Mexico, Canada, and some countries in the Caribbean, where a U.S. birth certificate or other proof of U.S. citizenship may be accepted. Your travel agent or airline can tell you if you need a passport for the country that you plan to visit. Information on entry requirements is available from the booklet Foreign Entry Requirements, for 50 cents from the Consumer Information Center, Pueblo, Colorado 81009; telephone 719-948-4000; Internet http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov The embassy or consulate of the country where you plan to travel can also advise you about its entry requirements.

• A properly completed, but unsigned, passport application (DSP-11). Do not sign it!

• Proof of U.S. citizenship:
  • Use your previously issued passport or one in which you were included. If you are applying for your first passport or cannot submit a previous passport, you must submit other evidence of citizenship.
  • If you were born in the United States, you should produce a certified copy of your birth certificate. This must show that the birth record was filed shortly after birth and must be certified with the registrar's signature and raised, impressed, embossed, or multicolored seal. Certified copies of birth records can be obtained from the Bureau of Vital Statistics in the city, state, county, or territory where you were born. (Notifications of Birth Registration or Birth Announcements are not normally accepted for passport purposes.) A delayed birth certificate (one filed more than one year after the date of birth) is acceptable, provided it shows a plausible basis for creating this record. If it does not, you will need to submit the best secondary evidence possible.

• If you cannot obtain a birth certificate, you may submit a notice from a state registrar stating that no birth record exists, accompanied by the best secondary evidence possible. This may include a baptismal certificate, a hospital birth record, notarized affidavits of persons having personal knowledge of the facts of your birth, or other documentary evidence such as an early census, school records, family Bible records, and newspaper files. A personal knowledge affidavit should be supported by at least one public record reflecting birth in the United States.

• If you were born abroad, you can use:
• A Certificate of Naturalization
• A Certificate of Citizenship
• A Report of Birth Abroad of a Citizen of the United States of America (Form FS-240)
• A Certification of Birth (Form FS-545 or DS-1350)
• If you do not have any of these documents and are a U.S. citizen, you should call the National Passport Information Center at 1-900-225-5674 for assistance.

• Proof of Identity
  You must also establish your identity to the satisfaction of the person accepting your application. The following items are generally acceptable documents of identity, if they contain your signature and if they readily identify you by physical description or photograph:
• A previous U.S. passport
• A Certificate of Naturalization or Citizenship
• A valid driver's license
• A government issued (Federal, state, municipal) identification card

The following are not acceptable:

• A Social Security card
• A learner's or temporary driver's license
• A credit card of any type
• Any temporary or expired identity card or document
• Any document that has been altered or changed

If you are unable to present one of the first four documents to establish your identity, you must be accompanied by a person who has known you for at least 2 years and who is a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident alien of the United States. That person must sign an affidavit in the presence of the same person who executes the passport application. The witness will be required to establish his or her own identity. You must also submit some identification of your own.

• Photographs.
  You must present two identical photographs of yourself that are sufficiently recent (normally taken within the past 6 months) to be a good likeness. Passport Services encourages photographs where the applicant is relaxed and smiling.

  The photographs must not exceed 2x2 inches in size. The image size measured from the bottom of your chin to the top of your head (including hair) must be not less than 1 inch nor more than 1-3/8 inches with your head taking up most of the photograph. Passport photographs may be either black and white or color.

  Photographs must be clear, front view, full-face, and printed on thin, white paper with a plain, white or off-white background. Photographs should be portrait-type prints taken in normal street attire without a hat and must include no more than the head and shoulders or upper torso. Dark glasses are not acceptable except when worn for medical reasons. Head coverings are only acceptable, if they are worn for religious reasons.

  Applicants may use photographs in military uniform only if they are on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces and are proceeding abroad in the discharge of their duties.

  Newspaper, magazine and most vending machine prints are not acceptable for use in passports.

• The correct fee for applying for a passport in person.
  Applicants age 16 and over, who are required to appear in person, must pay $60 for their passport. This includes a $15 execution fee. The passport is valid for 10 years. Applicants age 15 and under must pay $40 for their passport. This includes a $15 execution fee. The passport is valid for 5 years.

  You may pay by check, bank draft, or money order, payable to Passport Services. You may also pay in cash (exact change only) at a passport agency and at some, but not all post offices and clerks of court.

How to Apply for a Passport by Mail
You may apply by mail if you meet the following requirements:

• You can submit your most recent passport.
• Your previous passport was issued on or after your 16th birthday and was issued within the past 12 years.
• You use the same name as that on your most recent passport or you have had your name changed by marriage or court order, and can submit proof of the change in name

How to Proceed
Obtain Form DSP-82, Application for Passport by Mail, from one of the U.S. passport agencies, from a Federal or state court, from a U.S. post office that is authorized to accept passport applications, from your travel agent, or from the Internet at http://travel.state.gov Complete the information requested on the reverse side of the form.

• Sign and date the application.
• Include your date of departure. If no date is included, passport agents will assume that your travel plans are not immediate, and you will receive your passport within 25 working days from receipt of the application at the passport agency.
• Enclose your previous passport. (Your previous passport and other documents that you may have submitted will be returned to you with your new passport.)
• Enclose two identical 2x2 photographs.
• Enclose the $40 passport fee. (The $15 execution fee is not required for applicants eligible to apply by mail.)
• If your name has changed, submit the original or certified copy of the court order or marriage certificate that shows the change of name.
• The person that you list to be notified in case of an emergency should be someone who could act on your behalf. The person should be someone to whom you have given or could give a power of attorney.
• For processing, mail the completed application and attachments to the National Passport Center, listed on the application form. An incomplete or improperly prepared application will delay issuance of your passport.
• If requesting Expedited Service, include the $35.00 expedite fee.

How to Pay the Passport Fee
The following forms of payment are acceptable when you apply by mail:

• A bank draft or a cashier's check
• A check: either a certified check, a personal check, or a traveler's check (The check should be made out for the exact amount
• A money order: either a U.S. postal money order, an international money order, a currency exchange money order or a bank money order
• Checks must be made payable to Passport Services.

When You Receive Your Passport
Sign it right away! Fill in page 5, the personal notification data page. (For the emergency contact, do not include the name of your traveling companion; instead, write in pencil the name, address, and telephone number of someone who is not traveling with you.) Your previous passport and other documents that you may have submitted will be returned to you with your new passport.

Other Passport Information

• Expedited Service
  It normally takes 25 business days from receipt of the complete application by a passport agency to return your passport. If you wish or need to receive your passport sooner, you may request expedited service for processing of the passport within 3 business days from receipt of the application by a passport agency. The fee for expedited service is $35.00 per application, which is in addition to the regular passport fee.

  If you request expedited service, your departure date should be clearly shown on the application. Anyone who pays the $35.00 expedite fee and submits a complete application will be given expedited service.

  If you plan to travel in more than two weeks, but need a passport urgently, it is strongly recommended that you arrange for two-way overnight delivery of the passport to prevent delays. If you are leaving within two weeks, it is recommended that you go to the nearest passport agency to apply.

  For additional details, you may check with the National Passport Information Center.

  If you plan to travel abroad frequently or if you stay overseas for long periods of time, your relatives or associates in the United States should have valid passports as well. That way, if you were to become seriously ill or involved in some other emergency, they could travel without delay. Also, you should leave with them your passport number and the date and place of the passport's issuance.

• Diplomatic and Official Passports
  If you are being assigned abroad on U.S. government business and are eligible to apply by mail for a no-fee passport (no-fee regular passport, official passport, diplomatic passport), you must submit the mail-in application form, your authorization to apply for a no-fee passport, your previous passport, and two photographs to the Special Issuance Agency in Washington, D.C. for processing. The address is 1111 19th Street, N.W., Suite 350, Washington, D.C. 20522-1705.

• Additional Visa Pages
  Should you require additional visa pages before your passport expires, you can obtain them by submitting your passport to one of the passport agencies listed at the back of this pamphlet. If you travel frequently to countries requiring visas, you may request a 48-page passport at the time that you apply. There is no additional charge for extra pages or for a 48-page passport.

• Change of Name
  If you have changed your name, you will need to have your passport amended. Fill out Form DSP-19, Passport Amendment/Validation Application, which is available from any office that is authorized to accept passport applications. The form can also be downloaded from the State Department Web Site. Submit the DSP-19 along with proof of the name change (a marriage certificate, divorce decree, or certified court order) to the nearest passport agency. There is no fee for this service, except if expedite service is requested.

• An Altered or Mutilated Passport
  If your U.S. passport is mutilated or altered in any way (other than changing the personal notification data), you may render it invalid, cause yourself much inconvenience, and expose yourself to possible prosecution under the law (Section 1543, Title 22 of the U.S. Code).

  Mutilated or altered passports should be turned in to passport agents, authorized postal employees, or U.S. consular officers abroad.

• Loss or Theft of a U.S. Passport
  It is important that you safeguard your passport. Its loss could cause you unnecessary travel complications as well as significant expense.

  If your passport is lost or stolen in the United States, you should apply for a new passport and complete Form DSP-64, Statement Regarding Lost or Stolen Passport, which is available at U.S. passport agencies or can be downloaded from http://www.state.gov.

  If your passport is lost or stolen abroad, you should report the loss immediately to the local police and to the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. If you can provide the consular officer with the information contained in your passport, it will facilitate issuance of a new passport. Therefore, it is a good idea to make two photocopies of the data page of your passport. Keep one copy separately from your passport to take with you on your trip, and leave the other copy with a relative or friend in the United States. It is also a good idea to carry two extra passport size photos with you.

Passport Agencies
Please Remember to Apply Early For Your Passport!

All public inquiries should be referred to the National Passport Information Center at telephone number

1-900-225-5674* (or 1-888-362-8668 with a credit card).

* (Please see information about these telephone numbers.)
** Twenty-four hour recording.

Boston Passport Agency
Thomas P. O'Neill Fed. Bldg., Room 247
10 Causeway Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02222-1094
**Recording: 617-565-6990

Chicago Passport Agency
Suite 380, Kluczynski Federal Bldg.
230 South Dearborn Street
Chicago, Illinois 60604-1564
**Recording: 312-341-6020

Honolulu Passport Agency
First Hawaiian Tower
1132 Bishop Street, Suite 500
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813-2809
**Recording: 808-522-8283

Houston Passport Agency
Mickey Leland Fed. Bldg.
1919 Smith Street, Suite 1100
Houston, Texas 77002-8049
**Recording: 713-209-3153

Los Angeles Passport Agency
1st Floor, Federal Building
11000 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1000
Los Angeles, California 90024-3615
**Recording: 310-575-5700

Miami Passport Agency
3rd Floor, Federal Office Bldg.
51 Southwest First Avenue
Miami, Florida 33130-1680
**Recording: 305-539-3600

New Orleans Passport Agency
Postal Services Building
701 Loyola Avenue, Rm. T-12005
New Orleans, Louisiana 70113-1931
**Recording: 504-589-6161

New York Passport Agency
Greater New York Federal Building
376 Hudson Street
10th Floor
New York, New York 10014
**Recording: 212-206-3500

Philadelphia Passport Agency
U.S. Customs House
200 Chestnut Street, Room 103
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106-2970
**Recording: 215-597-7480

San Francisco Passport Agency
95 Hawthorne Street
5th Floor
San Francisco, California 94105-3901
**Recording: 415-538-2700

Seattle Passport Agency
Room 992, Federal Office Bldg.
915 Second Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98174-1091
**Recording: 206-808-5700

Stamford Passport Agency
One Landmark Square
Broad and Atlantic Streets
Stamford, Connecticut 06901-2667
**Recording: 203-325-4401

Washington Passport Agency
1111 19th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20522-1705
**Recording: 202-647-0518

* The cost per minute for 1-900 calls is $.35 for the automated system and $1.05 for operator assistance. This service also includes an optional number: 1-888-362-8668 (TDD 1-888-498-3648) for those calling with blocked 1-900 service. These calls require a credit card payment of a flat rate of $4.95 per call.

** The twenty-four hour recording includes general passport information, passport agency location, hours of operation, and information regarding emergency passport services during non-working hours. Some passport agencies require appointments for applicants with proof of departure within 14 days. When necessary, the recording will provide instructions on making an appointment.

Do You Have Other Questions About Passports?
Additional passport information may be obtained from the National Passport Information Center (NPIC). Callers can dial 1-900-225-5674* to receive passport applications or additional information about passport emergencies, applying for a U.S. passport, and to check on the status of a passport application. Automated information is available 24-hours/day, 7 days/week. Operators can be reached Monday-Friday, excluding Federal holidays, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Services are provided in English, Spanish and by TDD (1-900-225-7778*).

1-866-STORYBOOK (786-7926)

703-858-9898

9am - 10pm EST 7-days a week

E-mail: dreams@storybookcruises.com