Raleigh, NC — The Westgate Post Office is joining the Department of State in celebrating Passport Day in the USA 2013, a national passport acceptance and outreach event on Saturday, March 9. Westgate is one of six Triangle-area Post Offices participating in Passport Day – the others are Angier, Durham Main, Louisburg, Wake Forest and Wendell.

The Passport Fair in Raleigh will be held on Saturday, March 9, 2012 from 9 am – 1 pm in the lobby of the Westgate Post Office, 1 Floretta Place, Raleigh. Applicants are encouraged in advance to print an application online at www.usps.com/passport, and have it completed but unsigned prior to going to the Post Office.

Currently, most passports cost $135 for adults and $105 for children under 16 years of age, while passport cards cost $55 additionally, and $40 more for minors. Both parents must be present when processing passports for minors. To help the passport application process run smoothly and efficiently, the Postal Service recommends the following:

• Bring in proper proof of American citizenship. This must be either: a certified birth certificate issued by the city, county or state; a previous U.S. passport; a certificate of citizenship; or a naturalization certificate. (Please note: a hospital-issued birth certificate alone is not acceptable.)
• Bring in proof of identity.  This must be either: a previous U.S. passport; a naturalization certificate; a certificate of citizenship; a current valid driver’s license, government ID or military photo ID. Bring original plus a photo copy of the ID, front and back on same side of page.
• The passport application requires an identical color photograph of you, which is available at the Post Office for $15.

For additional information, please contact Westgate Post Office, (919) 420-5335.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service was ranked number one in overall service performance, out of the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world, Oxford Strategic Consulting. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

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