New passport regulations cause run on P.O.

Photo by Michael Woodward, Reporter

SAY CHEESE: Diana Walters, Anderson Post Office clerk of 21 years, gets behind the camera used to take passport photos. Passports are now required to return from overseas flights.

U.S. citizens traveling abroad by air must now present a passport to reenter the country from any part of the Western Hemisphere. Citizens of Canada, Mexico and Bermuda must also present a passport to enter the U.S. by air. The regulation went into effect Jan. 23, 2007. The U.S. State Department will require passports for incoming land and sea travel as early as Jan. 1, 2008.

Anderson Post Master Andy Greenblatt warns that travelers should get a passport even if they’re driving or taking a cruise across the border.

“If something happens to you while you’re there, without a passport you couldn’t fly home,” Greenblatt said.

The U.S. State Department issued 12.1 million passports to American citizens in 2006 and expects to issue 16 million passports in 2007, according to a government website.

The Anderson post office has already felt the surge in business.

“We used to do two to three passports a day,” said post office clerk Diana Walters, “now we do eight, sometimes 10 in a day.”

To get a passport at the Anderson Post Office, bring the following:

• A completed passport application form (available at the post office)

• Proof of citizenship (a birth certificate)

• Proof of identity (a driver’s license)

• Two color photographs (photo specifications are listed on the passport application form) or get your pictures taken at the post office for $15

Children and babies also must carry passports. To read the special requirements for children under age 14, see the passport application form available at the post office.

The post office accepts passport applications and snaps passport photographs. The information is then sent to the U.S. State Department, which provides citizens with the passport in six to eight weeks.

The State Department will quicken the process to two weeks for a $60 fee.

The Anderson Post Office processes passport applications Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A “passport fair” is being planned for late spring, when the post office will accept passport applications on a Saturday.

For passport information, call the Anderson Post office at 365-3883 or visit the U.S. State Department web site at http://travel.state.gov/.