Moses Lake post office offering passports

MOSES LAKE - Documentation needed to get in and out of the country is about to be offered for the first time at the Moses Lake Post Office.

Postmaster Debbie Welden said the post office is expected to begin offering passport services around Wednesday, although the moment residents can begin to schedule appointments, she will hang large signs outside the post office building, located at 223 W. Third Ave.

It's the first time the Moses Lake post office is offering passports.

"We're certified to do them, and that's what we're setting up right now to handle them, sending our employees for training and then we'll be able to accept them," Welden explained. "We'll be an acceptance facility."

Residents would fill out an application for a passport and bring it to the post office, which processes the application and renewal forms, then forwards them on with the required fees. Residents receive their passports directly from the state, Welden added.

New passport cards came out Feb. 1, and there has been a fee change for passports, which Welden estimated to be an increase of about $8.

When customers come in, they pay a $25 fee to the post office in addition to the cost of the passport, so Welden recommends coming in with a way to pay for two separate fees. The state cost can be paid via check or money order, while the post office fee can be paid by credit card. Fee amounts are set by the Department of the State for any acceptance facility.

The post office will sell passports Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays by appointment only. Each 30-minute appointment slot is for one person.

"So if they have multiple people in their family, then they need to make multiple appointments," Welden said.

Appointments should take about 15 minutes, Welden said, but the post office is allowing for 30 minutes as the program gets under way.

Residents must provide a completed passport application, which they can pick up prior to their appointment, and any required identification, including birth certificates.

"When they bring us in a certified copy of their birth certificate, they either have to bring in the original or a certified copy," Welden said. "We will take that copy because we have to send it to the Department of the State, and it will be returned to them with their passport. So they need to understand we can't have a copy, we need to have an original or a certified copy."

The post office will also take original birth certificates, which will be returned. Welden said this has been a big issue at other acceptance facilities.

"People kind of get upset with us because we have to take them, but that's not our rule," she said.

If applications are not completed, residents may have to reschedule unless there is not another appointment scheduled following.

The post office takes pictures for an added fee. There are special requirements for children under the age of 16.

Residents can select either the book passport, the new passport card or both, Welden said, with fees varying depending upon the decision.

"I think it's a great opportunity, because right now we probably get three to four calls a day wanting to know about passports," she said. "We have several of the businesses here in town that actually send people abroad, so people are calling to find out where we get a passport."

Many people from Moses Lake have participated in a Wenatchee passport fair, Welden noted.

"Passports are becoming a thing everybody's now getting," she said.

Welden estimated it takes about four to six weeks to receive a passport under regular conditions. If someone is traveling within the next days, the state recommends the expedited process, she added.

For more information about passports, call the post office at 509-764-5507.