Place of issue for passport

**johannK** · 26th May 2007, 07:56 PM

Do all the new US passports say "US Dept of State" for place of issue (authority)? Mine does. When you go to the state department page for registration before travelling abroad, the online form asks for place of issue of passport, and "state department" is not listed. You have to pick a regional agency. Any input on this?

**happigal** · 27th May 2007, 01:36 AM

My passport says the same thing yours does which is US Dept of State.

I think if you have to pick a regional office...then it would be logical to pick the agency that is close to where you are located.

Here is the URL that shows all the regional agencies:

http://travel.state.gov/passport/abo...ncies_913.html

**pjdski** · 27th May 2007, 03:53 PM

All new passports will now show the place of issuance as US DOS. Formerly the first two digits of your passport number would determine who the issuing agency was (i.e. 01-Washington DC, 02-Chicago, 13-Houston, etc.) Now with the introduction of the electronic passports, that numbering scheme no longer applies. You can not assume that the regional agency closest to your area is the issuing agency. All applications are first sent to a banking and distribution center; once the banking part of the process is done the applications are sent on to one of 16 regional agencies for printing. The biggest priority of the distribution center is to try and level load the the number of applications that are sent to any particular agency based on capacity and back log. All adult renewals are printed at the National Passport Center in New Hampshire (even though the renewal applications are sent to Philadelphia or New Castle DE.) The Charleston Passport Center is another HUGE processing agency that does first time applications, as well as additional visa pages. I've never understood why the place of issuance is so important, and believe will be a moot point very shortly

**johannK** · 27th May 2007, 04:15 PM

You are absolutely right; place of issue is irrelevant. However, interestingly, when you go to the State dept webpage for registering your foreign trips, it asks for a place of issue for your passport, and does not list USDOS as an option.

**bashar82** · 30th May 2007, 06:51 AM

Look on envelope your passport came in. You should be able to figure out where it came from.

**1caliN400** · 30th May 2007, 02:18 PM

If you want to determine exactly where your passport was issued, go to this link and scroll down:

http://travel.state.gov/passport/get...ting_2849.html

It's supposed to work based on two digits in the MRZ. HOWEVER, my two digits don't appear in the corresponding chart (and I know for a fact that my passport was issued in Los Angeles), but hope it helps some of you.