GROESBECK, TX — For those planning a trip out of the country soon, the Post Office can assist in accepting passport applications. The Groesbeck Post Office will be helping busy families by hosting a Passport Fair at the Groesbeck Post Office, 112 S. Dr. J.B. Riggs Dr., from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3. The Passport Fair will take place within the customer lobby, with separate areas staffed by trained postal employees to handle the application, fee payment, passport photo and verification processes.

The Post Office always recommends coming in as early as possible to apply for a passport — at least two months or earlier before your departure — to avoid any extra costs to expedite an application. Normally, it costs $135 total for adults (16 years and older), with separate payments of $25 for application processing paid to the U.S. Postal Service, and $110 paid to the US Department of State for the passport application and security fees. For persons under 16, the total cost is $105 with separate payments of $25 to the U.S. Postal Service for its processing fee, and $80 to the US Department of State.

For expedited passport service, add $72.02 for each application, payable to the US Department of State. Two-way overnight delivery is strongly encouraged. In such cases, the applicant incurs expedited (Express Mail®) delivery costs of $18.30, payable to the US Postal Service.

To help the Passport Fair application process go 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; or a current valid driver’s license, government ID or military photo ID.
• The passport application requires one recent photograph of you, which the Passport Fair sites will take for a fee of $15.
• To save time, you can download a passport application at www.usps.com/passport to complete your application beforehand.

For more information on passports, customers can also visit the State Department’s web site at www.travel.state.gov.

We’re everywhere so you can be anywhere: www.uspseverywhere.com

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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, 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. We’re everywhere so you can be anywhere: www.uspseverywhere.com. 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.