BROOKLYN, NY —   Need a passport? On Saturday, March 9, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. the Brooklyn Main Post Office will participate in the U.S. Department of State’s nationwide Passport Day in the USA 2013 community outreach / passport acceptance event.  The Brooklyn Main Post Office is located at 271 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, NY 11201.

This year, the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs is focusing on family travel. Convenient Saturday hours ensure most parents don’t have to miss work to apply for their child’s U.S. passport. The Bureau of Consular Affairs reminds parents that passports for children under the age of 16 expire every five years, and to apply for a passport for a child under the age of 16, both parents and the child need to appear in person or bring a notarized “Minor Consent” form signed by the absent parent.

Helpful tips:

• Bring proper proof of American citizenship or naturalization. This must be either: a state-issued certified birth certificate; a previous official passport; or a naturalization certificate, if you are foreign-born. (Please note: a hospital-issued birth certificate is not acceptable.)
• Bring in one officially-acceptable state or government photo ID. This can be either a driver's license, a military photo ID, or a state-issued photo ID.
• The passport application requires one recent photograph. The photo must meet specific passport requirements which are explained at http://travel.state.gov/passport. (Photos may be taken at the Passport Fair for an additional fee.)
• To save time, download passport application documents at www.usps.com/passport and fill out beforehand. However, don't sign the application form, as the passport acceptance clerk must witness the signing.
• For children under age 16, both parents' consent and proof of parental relationship are required. See Special Requirements for children under age 16 at http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/minors/minors_834.html for details.

More information is available on the Postal Service website at www.usps.com/passport or the Department of State website at http://travel.state.gov/index.html.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies solely 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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