when you are applying for an american passport for the first time after you become a u.s citizen
you will have to apply in person in order to find the right place for you to apply and understand
what documents you need to apply we are going to head over to travel.state.gov under u.s passports
there are a lot of useful information in this page here i do encourage you to do some reading
but the summary of it all if you want to go through the normal process it's going to take
between 10 to 12 weeks to get your passport but if you pay an additional 60 fee you can
obtain your passport within four to six weeks we're going to head over here if you scroll all
the way down under i need the passport section and then you want to click apply in person
so once you get here the first thing that you will need is a form called form ds-11 this is
a form that's going to be provided to you during the oath ceremony they will give you a package and
one of the documents in that package is form ds-11 and i did talk about this in details in this video
up here if you want to check it out but this is the form that you need to fill in order for you
to apply it has some basic information about first name last name address social security information
and then in that form you specify what document do you want to apply for you want to apply for
a passport book or a passport card which by the way there is a difference and i'm going
to talk about the difference between passport book and passport card in an upcoming video
they will ask you do you want a normal standard passport book or you want a large version with
more pages for you which by the way if you go with that option it's free of charge however
down the road if you happen to fill your original passport or your first password
you will have to pay an additional fee to get more pages for either your visas or just travel entry
to other countries so just keep that in mind might as well get the free version right now when it's
possible so once you apply this form you want to make sure that you do also have or provide
evidence of u.s citizenship in this scenario right here since you just became a u.s citizen
the proof for your citizenship is the citizenship certification that they also gave you during the
oath ceremony all you have to do is to make sure that you sign it and they are going to tell you
about that during the old ceremony as well so you want to take that document with you and you also
want to take a photocopy of the original document so both the original and the photocopy same thing
applies for your id you want to take the original id and the photocopy of your id on top of that
you will have to provide a picture or a photo for your passport what they call the passport photo so
to get a passport photo my recommendation is to find a place who provides photos services
as well and i am going to show you how you can do that so these are all of the documents that you
really need in order for you to apply so now let's take a look at how you can find the place to apply
and let's talk about how you can get your photos taken as well so if you take a look right here to
the right there is a section called where to apply so we're going to go in there so there are a lot
of options to choose from here i went with the four to six weeks just to expedite the process
and i'm gonna go in here and click expedite at an acceptance facility and what we are trying to do
here is to find the right facility for us so go in there and add in your zip code the distance and if
you see this field right here that says additional search criteria you can choose a facility that is
that has handicap access photo on site or photo nearby so just to make things easier for you
we're going to add photo on sites this way when you go in there provided documents they can take
your photo they make sure that it has the right dimensions that are required for the application
and you're good to go so i'm gonna hit search and that is going to return a bunch of facilities to
choose from so a couple of things to keep in mind once you pick the facility that is close to you
make sure that you call them to a check that indeed they do have photo service on site
make sure that you schedule your appointment because some of them take walk-ins but things
are different right now during the pandemic so make sure that you call them to schedule your
appointment if an appointment is necessary so once you do that all you have to do is to head to the
facility have your document with you and be ready to pay for your application fees so let's take a
look at the fees for the application so depending on what product you need the application fee is
going to be different so if you are applying for a passport book only you will have to pay 110 plus
an execution fee of 35 and if you want to expedite the process that is going to be an additional 60
one thing to keep in mind when you choose the facility make sure that you are checking whether
they take all form of payments because some of them don't take a credit card they will ask you
for a debit card some of them take check some of them don't so just make sure that you are prepared
ahead of time so that you have a hassle-free experience other feature or service that you
are going to benefit from is the possibility or the option to track your application process so
all you will have to do is to head over to this link right here passportstatus.state.gov am going
to leave a link in the description box you have to accept and read the privacy submit and that is
going to take you to this page right here where you will have to provide your last name date of
birth social security number and retype the code once you do you submit your request and that is
going to give you the status of your application just to kind of understand where it's standing
and when to expect your passport to be shipped and sent to you this is pretty much it for the
application if you guys have any questions do let me know in the comments i typically
answer them within 24 hours i would say but if you found this video to be useful do give it a
thumbs up consider subscribing to the channel my name is habiba this is trekking tiles and
keep an eye out for the next video in which i'm going to talk about the difference between the us
passport book and the us passport card thank you again for watching and i will see you very soon