GREATER ELMIRA/ITHACA– The U.S. Department of State is once again sponsoring Passport Day in the USA on Saturday, April 9, 2011. Eight Elmira/Ithaca area Post Offices are scheduled to participate in the national event. (See full list of participating Post Offices and hours at bottom.)

Customers have the option of applying for a passport book, good for all international travel or the passport card, which is less expensive but good only for land and sea travel between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean region and Bermuda.

The cost for an adult passport book is $110 plus a $25 processing/acceptance fee and the cost of photos; the adult passport card is $30 plus a $25 processing fee and the cost of photos. Both are good for ten years. Customers wanting both the passport book and card are charged only one processing fee. Payments are accepted via cash, check. Credit cards are acceptable for processing and photo fees only.

Travelers are encouraged to apply for a passport several months before they are scheduled to travel overseas. A passport application is normally processed by the State Department within five to six weeks.  However, for an additional fee, the State Department will expedite the application and process it within three business days, and for those who need speedy delivery, the U. S. Postal Service offers Express Mail next day delivery both to and from the State Department.

To apply for a passport, travelers need to complete Passport Application Form DS-11 (unsigned), provide proof of U. S. citizenship and proof of identity, submit two identical passport photos and pay the appropriate passport fees.

In 2010, the United States Postal Service accepted 6.7 million passport applications, nearly 50% of the total passports processed by the U.S. Department of State.

For more information about passport application requirements, visit the State Department’s travel website at travel.state.gov.

Elmira/Ithaca area Post Offices Participating in National Passport Day 2011 (by ZIP Code):

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Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/welcome.htm.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 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 $67 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 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. 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 six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.