Answer the questions
No form numbers and no legal wording. We ask things like where you were born and when you last had a passport, then put your answers in the right boxes.
United States Passport
Secure
Your US passport, without the paperwork.
Answer a few questions in plain English. We fill out the federal form, check your photo, and tell you exactly what to bring and where to take it.
- Takes about 8 minutes on your phone
- Your photo is checked before anything is filed
- You can call and get a real person on the phone
Encrypted end to end
Checked by people in the US
Open 7 days
What do you need?
Tap an option to continue.
No account needed. Nothing is charged until you see the full price.
2,441 applying today
How it works
Three steps. You do two of them.
Everyone fills in the same federal form. The difference is whether you have to work out what it is asking.
Take your photo
Point your phone at your face. We check the lighting, the background, your glasses and your expression on the spot, then crop it to the size the government wants.
We check it and file it
Someone here reads your whole application and flags anything that would get it sent back. You watch each stage from your account and we email you when it moves.
What turns up
A real passport book, posted to your door.
The government issues it, the same as it would if you had filed the forms yourself. We are the part in the middle that makes sure nothing in your application gives them a reason to send it back.
- Adult books are good for 10 years, children under 16 get 5
- Tracked delivery, with the tracking number in your account
- Add a passport card for driving and cruises if you want one
Already booked the trip?
Passports are the thing people leave until last and then panic about. Start it tonight and it is off your list. If your travel date is tight, say so on the next screen and we will show you the fastest option that still works.
Check what I need
Your photo
The photo is what gets most people sent back.
A shadow on the wall. A smile. Glasses you forgot to take off. A crop that is a few millimetres out. Any one of those means a letter in the post and weeks added on. We check for all of it before your application goes anywhere.
- Use the phone in your handNo booth, no drugstore, no printing. The guide frames your face for you.
- You find out straight awayLighting, background, headwear, expression and eye line, checked in seconds.
- Cropped to 2 x 2 inches for youBackground cleaned to plain white, head size and position set to the published rules.
- A person looks at it tooEvery photo is checked by our team, not only by software.
Plain white wall, even light, neutral face, both ears showing.
Sunglasses, shadow behind the head, big smile, busy background.
If something goes wrong, you can talk to somebody.
Not a chatbot and not an email address that never replies. People who deal with passport applications all day and have seen your problem before.
- They can see your application while you are on the call
- They tell you which documents to bring and where to take them
- If the government asks for more, they walk you through it
Worth knowing
You can do this yourself for free.
Plenty of people do. Here is what you are choosing between, with nothing left out.
On your own
- Read the government instructions and work out which form you need
- Print it, fill it in by hand, hope nothing lands in the wrong box
- Pay for a photo, then find out at the counter that it fails
- One mistake means a letter in the post and weeks of waiting
- Nobody to ask when you are not sure what a question means
With depart.us
- We pick the right form from your answers. You never choose one.
- Everything is typed up and printed for you, ready to sign
- Your photo is approved before it is ever attached
- Someone catches the mistakes that get applications sent back
- Live status in your account and a real person on the phone
Customers
What people said once theirs arrived.
I put this off for two years because the form scared me. The whole thing took one cup of coffee. The photo check saved me a trip to CVS.
Two kids under sixteen, which is apparently the hard version of this. They told me exactly which documents to bring and nothing came back.
Mine went through the washing machine three weeks before a wedding in Italy. Someone actually picked up the phone and told me what to do.
Straight answers
The questions everyone asks
No. depart.us is a private company that prepares and checks passport applications. We are not part of the government and we do not work for it. You can always apply directly with the government yourself and pay only the government fee.
We turn your answers into a correctly filled federal form, produce a photo that meets the rules, have someone read the whole thing for the mistakes that get applications sent back, and give you an account where you can see what is happening. The government fee is separate and goes to the government, not to us.
Our fee starts at $119 and depends on how fast you need it. Shipping is shown separately. The government charges its own fee on top, which you pay to them. You see every line before you are asked for a card, and nothing is charged until then.
Our part takes hours to a couple of days depending on the speed you pick. The government's part is out of anyone's hands, and the current published wait is roughly 6 to 8 weeks for routine service and less for expedited. We show you today's estimate before you pay and tell you the moment it changes.
If you are renewing, usually not. If this is a first passport, or it is for a child under 16, the government requires you to show up with proof of citizenship. We tell you which office, what to bring and what happens when you get there, so it is not a surprise on the day.
They are encrypted on the way to us and while we hold them, and they are used only to prepare your application. We do not sell personal data. Once your passport is issued you can ask us to delete everything.
If it was rejected because of something we prepared, we fix it and file it again and you pay us nothing more. If the government wants extra information from you, someone here walks you through what they are asking for. The full terms are on our Refund Policy page.
Yes. Add everyone to the same account and all the applications, photos and statuses sit on one screen. Children under sixteen need both parents to consent, and we flag that when you get to it.
2,441 people started one today
The hard part is starting. That takes 30 seconds.
Answer the first question now. You can stop at any point and come back, and nothing is charged until you have seen the full price.