Sending documents to us

Most customers use USPS Priority Mail (inexpensive and reliable). You may also use Express Mail, FedEx, and UPS, which provide tracking. There are also customers who use USPS first class letter mail.

USPS certified or registered mails are reliable but very slow. Priority Mail with signature confirmation (2-3 days) often takes longer than Priority Mail without signature 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 USPS 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

For shipping documents back to you, we recommend FedEx due to it's near "real time" tracking, especially if you tend to worry about where the document is. As soon as the package is scanned, you get email notification from FedEx, even before our update. For USPS, the tracking may be delayed until the next day.

Option 1: (preferred) pay a shipping fee ⁽¹⁾ and we will take care the rest. We offer several FedEx and USPS 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 $1-8, see prepaid envelope preparation guide for details on fees, restrictions, and sign the release form).

• FedEx tracking is in general more reliable and more timely than USPS tracking.
• If you need to compute/compare prices, please note that our zip code for return shipping is 77030.

Type	Days	Fee (1)	Tracking (3)(4)	Insurance	Sat Delivery	Sun Delivery	Holiday Delivery
FedEx Express Saver	2-3	$16	Yes (good)	No	No	No	No
FedEx 2Day	2	$20	Yes (good)	$100	No	No	No
FedEx Overnight(2)	1	$29	Yes (good)	$100	extra cost	No	No
FedEx Ground(7)	2-4	$15	Yes (good)	No	No	No	No
USPS Priority Mail	2-3	$7	Yes (delay)	No	Yes	No	No
USPS Priority Mail with signature	2-3	$9	Yes (delay)	No	Yes	No	No
USPS Express Mail(2)	1 (5)	$20	Yes (delay)	$100	Yes	extra cost	extra cost

⁽¹⁾ The shipping fees are based on shipping up to 10 passports per package for USPS Priority Mail and Express Mail, 1 lb (16 oz) for FedEx 2Day and FedEx Express Saver, and 0.5 lb (8 oz) for FedEx Overnight. They 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.
FedEx Overnight is Standard Overnight which ususally delivers by 3 pm. FedEx Priority Overnight and Saturday Delivery cost about $5 and $20 more, respectively.

⁽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⁾ For USPS priority mail, 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 USPS Priority or Express Mail, the tracking information is often not available until next morning. If you tend to worry about your package, please select FedEx.

⁽⁵⁾ USPS Express Mail usually arrives the next day, but may take an extra day to some smaller cities away from a major city.

⁽⁶⁾ Puerto Rico: The cost of shipping for US postal service is the same, but is higher for FedEx. We may ask you to pay extra if the actual FedEx cost is much higher than in the table.

⁽⁷⁾ FedEx Groud: Good for shorter distance, not recommended if the distance is long as it takes too long to arrive.

USPS Priority Mail

Priority Mail offers 2-3 day service to most domestic destinations. It delivers on Saturdays but not on Sunday or holidays.

USPS 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.

For some destinations, it may take an extra day.

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 includes a lot of extra work for us. We offer the following options to Hong Kong and mainland China (16 oz or less):

• USPS Express Mail International (EMS) $45 (3-5 days)
• FedEx International Priority $69 (3-5 days, extra if over 0.5 lb)
• From our experience, FedEx usually arrive 3-4 days and EMS 4-5 days. The difference may be due to the fact that FedEx only delivers to large cities.

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 (US passports used to be 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 tracking information.