Sending documents to us

Most customers use Postal Priority Mail with or without delivery confirmation (inexpensive and reliable). You may also use Express Mail, FedEx, and UPS, which provide tracking. There are also customers who use postal first class letter mail, which was how your new US passport was sent to you.

Postal certified or registered mails are reliable but very slow. Priority Mail with signature confirmation (2-4 days) often takes longer than Priority Mail with delivery confirmation (2-3 days). Please keep these in mind when time is critical. You may use our Travel Planner to calculate the total time it takes to get your passport back.

When you use postal priority or express mail, please use the free envelopes provided by the post office if possible. They offer better protection than the "Cushion Mailers" sold at post office.

Shipping documents back to you

Option 1: (preferred) pay a shipping fee ⁽¹⁾ and we will take care the rest. We offer several services (see table below), selected primarily based on reliability.

Option 2: send us a prepaid return envelope (FedEx, UPS or US Postal Service) for shipping your documents back (handling fee $1, see preparation guide for details on fees, restrictions, and sign the release form).

• If you need to compute/compare prices, please note that our zip code for return shipping is 77030.
• If you plan to use postal priority or express mail, it is best that you pay us and we handle the rest, because customer provided envelopes are usually not scanned when going out of Houston. We use computer generated shipping labels, which provide better tracking.

Type	Days	Fee (1)	Tracking (3)(4)	Insurance	Sat Delivery	Sun Delivery	Holiday Delivery
Postal Priority Mail	2-3	$6	delivery confirmation	No	Yes	No	No
Postal Priority Mail	2-4	$8	signature confirmation	No	Yes	No	No
Postal Express Mail(2)	1	$19	Yes (delay)	$100	Yes	extra cost	extra cost
FedEx Express Saver	1-4	$16	Yes (good)	No	No	No	No
FedEx 2Day	2	$20	Yes (good)	$100	No	No	No
FedEx Express Overnight(2)	1	$29	Yes (good)	$100	extra cost	extra cost	No

⁽¹⁾ The shipping fees are based on shipping upto 10 passports per package and apply only to 48 US continental states. For all other areas, or even within the 48 states, if the actual shipping cost is excessively higher than listed, you will pay the actual cost of shipping and we may not ship your documents back before payment is received.

⁽²⁾ Both FedEx and US Postal Service say that their overnight services are available for most cities. For certain cities, they may not be able to deliver the next day, even if you paid the rate for next day delivery. Although both services are very reliable and usually deliver on time, we have seen delays using both services. So always plan ahead and allow some extra time.

⁽³⁾ Postal priority mail does not provide tracking, but offers delivery confirmation. The 2-3 days delivery time is for most areas. During holidays, it can take a week or more (just like regular mail).

⁽⁴⁾ Tracking information for FedEx is usually available 2-3 hours after pickup (about 7:30pm). For Postal Express Mail, the tracking information is often not available until next morning. If you tend to worry about your package, please select FedEx.

⁽⁵⁾ Puerto Rico: The cost of shipping for US postal service is the same, but is higher for FedEx.

Postal Priority Mail

Priority Mail offers 2-3 day service to most domestic destinations. It provides online delivery confirmation (not tracking). It delivers on Saturdays but not on Sunday or holidays.

Postal Express Mail

Express Mail offers overnight service to many destinations and is guaranteed or your money is refunded. Express Mail is delivered to many locations Monday to Saturday (extra charge for Sunday and holidays) - and delivered next day by noon to select locations. Express Mail provides tracking and insurance up to $100 at no additional cost.

FedEx Overnight, 2Day and Express Saver

FedEx services provide online tracking, but usually do not deliver on weekends or holidays.

The pricing for FedEx is complex and depends on distance, and it has additional fees for residential delivery, weekend delivery. Our fees are set for typical distances. You are welcome to include a prepaid FedEx envelope for mailing back your documents.

Overseas Shipping

(Document only, no passport/visa) Shipping to overseas is expensive and the shipping time varies. It also include a lot of extra work for us. We recommend sending us a prepaid envelope for this service. We also offer the following options to Hong Kong and mainland China (16 oz or less):

• US postal Priority Mail International $13.45 (6-10 days),
• US postal Express Mail International (EMS) $28.95 (3-5 days),
• US postal Global Express Guaranteed (GXG) from $45.95-68.75 (1-3 days),
• FedEx International Priority $65 (3-5 days).

Please note that the above fees are for your reference only and will be adjusted according to the current charges by the carriers. In addition, there will be an international mail handling fee of $10.

Responsibility

While mailing services are generally very reliable (remember that US passports are sent to everyone through regular letter mail), but lost mails do happen from time to time. We will not be responsible for documents lost during the mailing process. However, we will provide you with all tracking information or confirmation of delivery once they are available to us.