According to the U.S. Department of State, a life or death emergency involves "illness, injury or death in your immediate family that require you to travel within 24 to 48 hours outside the United States."
You must appear in person by appointment at a regional passport agency. They are located in Aurora, Colorado; Boston; Chicago; Detroit; Honolulu; Houston; Los Angeles; Miami; Minneapolis; New Orleans; New York; Norwalk, Connecticut; Philadelphia; San Francisco; Seattle; and Washington, D.C. You may be required to provide documented proof of the emergency.
To schedule an appointment, phone the National Passport Information Center at (877) 487-2778 (TTY/TDD (888) 874-7793) on the automated system accessible 24 hours a day.
If you're not near a regional agency or can't get an appointment when you call between 6:00 a.m. to 12 midnight, ET, Monday to Friday, and it's not a federal holiday, stay on the line to get advice from a Customer Service Representative (CSR).
If it's a weekend, a CSRs will help you during limited hours if you're traveling within seven days.
If it's a federal holiday or no CSR is available, call (202) 647-4000.
Overnight passport delivery is $60 in addition to the regular renewal fee. If you mail in your Form DS-82, write "EXPEDITE" prominently on the envelope. If you send more than one application, recognize that they may not be processed together. (Note: The new passport cards, which were first issued in 2008, cannot be expedited.)
You can only renew by mail if your expiring passport is undamaged and accompanies your application, was issued within the past 15 years and you were older than 16, and it bears your current name or you include legal documentation of a name change.
Depending on application volume, application processing times can vary, but they're updated daily on the Department of State's website.
Track your application's status online, but note that it takes between five and seven days for your application to reach the system.
Passport expediting services work with the regional agencies to get your passport renewed as quickly as 24 to 48 hours---for a fee. That fee can add several hundred dollars to the cost of the passport, depending on the amount of expediting needed. Scam services advertise on the Internet, so check with the National Association of Passport and Visa Services (NAPVS) and deal with one of its members because they are required to have high professional ethics and follow a strict code of conduct.
