Class of 2027 Waitlist

CookinBacon50 said:
Our post office doesn't have any available appointments until May 15. Expediting and praying it gets here! (Also still praying he will need it!! 😁)
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You may have already tried this, but be sure to check other post offices in surrounding areas of where you live. You can search out to 100 miles, but for whatever reason it only brings back a max of 5 results. You can manipulate this by entering a zip code a couple towns over from you and it may bring back a different set of results. Some of these other locations may have better availability.

If you happen to live in a very rural area, it's possible there really are no other choices. Where I live, there are probably 10 post offices that do passports within 20-25 miles with tons of availability.
 
Expedite it, search for the soonest appointment possible even if you have to drive a little ways, if for some reason it doesn’t look like you’ll have it for day one have your cadet communicate with the academy and they will advise. Our swab did not have it on day one but it was in process
 
CookinBacon50 said:
Awesome. Thanks! We can't get an appointment at our local acceptance offices until mid-May. Do you suggest we expedite it? (I should note we live in HI so the mailing time may be a couple days longer.)
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You have a US Passport Agency in Honolulu, if you live on Oahu. Now, it sets out eligibility criteria to get it done there, but I am a big believer in calling the appointment number or other customer service number, hoping for a live person, and trying for an exception.

“Hi, my name is Soontobee Swab, and I have just received military orders to report to the Coast Guard Service Academy (being EXTRA helpful with the name) on [date], and I am required to have a regular passport because of overseas training during the summer while I am at new cadet training. I have read your eligibility requirements on your website, and I understand I don’t meet certain criteria, but I am worried a mailed application will not get me the passport in time. Do you have the ability to make a local exception for someone reporting to active duty and fit me into your schedule?”
“You do? Thank you, may I review with you the required documentation?”

All they can say is no.

Honolulu Passport Agency

travel.state.gov travel.state.gov
 
Thanks everyone!!! I scoured all the locations within 30 miles and managed to find one appointment for TODAY!! That gives us exactly 9 weeks, which is the current long end of the expedited time line. I'll try talking to the person at the satellite city hall to find our best and quickest options available. If I have time, I'll also call up the Passport Agency per Capt MJ's suggestion!
 
ProudMom7 said:
Based on Eagle's schedule, some of the swabs will be flying to Bermuda to start their week on Eagle. The other two groups of swabs will only go to stateside ports. Since you don't know yet which group your swab will be in, you'd want to make sure your child has a passport in hand before mid-July since the first group will fly to Bermuda ~22 July. Based on expected turnaround times and then the time to get it to your swab, you probably would want to expedite if you can't get an appointment til later May.

I suspect that if your swab was scheduled to be in the first group and did NOT have a passport, that they might swap him into one of the other weeks. I'm sure they wouldn't be the only one. But that would mean they would no longer be with their platoon at that point. Plus there is no guarantee that they would be given that opportunity to swap. I know that some swabs were swapped last year due to covid or other medical restrictions.
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While CGA wants them to have their passports, they never use them. My grad was in half a dozen countries, including arriving by plane, and never used a passport. Those on the waitlist shouldn’t be sweating the passport, and it’s certainly not worth paying extra to expedite it.
 
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Except that the cga says you can't report day 1 without it. I suppose you could wait and find out how serious they are about it.
 
scprepoh said:
Except that the cga says you can't report day 1 without it. I suppose you could wait and find out how serious they are about it.
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Does it say you can’t report on day 1 without it or is it just in the list of things you are supposed to report with? Two very different things. You think CGA requires everyone on the waitlist to go get passports on the off and unlikely chance they get plucked from the waitlist? Have they told you that? If you think that’s the case even though they haven’t told you that, why don’t you call them and ask? @Objee surveils these boards. Maybe he/she can chime in on this.
 
From the 2026 handbook.

Required Items:
 U.S. Tourist Passport valid through August 31, 2022; visit https://travel.state.gov for information on
obtaining or renewing your passport. This process can take up to eight weeks, so plan accordingly.
 
scprepoh said:
From the 2026 handbook.

Required Items:
 U.S. Tourist Passport valid through August 31, 2022; visit https://travel.state.gov for information on
obtaining or renewing your passport. This process can take up to eight weeks, so plan accordingly.
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As I thought, it’s on the list of things you are supposed to report with, not that you can’t show up to Day1 without it. You are also suposed to have 47 pairs of white underwear. They don’t turn you away if you have 46 pairs of grey. So make a phone call to admissions or spend the money on the unlikely chance your kid comes off the waitlist. Your call.
 
DTT!SFA!: For the 2026 class it would not have been expired on day 1.

Korab: Make sure you have a U.S. Tourist Passport valid through at least August 31, 2022; if possible, renew
your passport now so it’s valid for your entire time at the Academy. The process to obtain or renew a
passport can take up to eight weeks, so plan accordingly. You must have your passport on Day One.

It doesn't sound very ambiguous to me, but maybe I am misunderstanding "required", "must" and "Day one" in some way
 
It is on the list, but I know from personal experience that a swab can report without it. However, like most things it is best to put forth your best effort which would include expediting it. Also, communication by your cadet to the appropriate people at the academy at any possible current or future issues to meeting the expectations set forth is always the way to proceed. Things happen, the Academy has been at this whole thing for a while, so they will direct people as appropriate.
 
I'm in the camp of "Be prepared for anything" so we got all the forms submitted today and expedited it in the chance he gets called up. (And if he doesn't, well, he's prepared for any overseas trip we might take in the next 10 years!) There's a lot going on on our end, so not having to worry about this later on is worth the additional money crunch, and a week or two of PBJ sandwiches for lunch. 😅
 
Korab said:
As I thought, it’s on the list of things you are supposed to report with, not that you can’t show up to Day1 without it. You are also suposed to have 47 pairs of white underwear. They don’t turn you away if you have 46 pairs of grey. So make a phone call to admissions or spend the money on the unlikely chance your kid comes off the waitlist. Your call.
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Nice post...
...oh, and you're wrong.
 
Our experience was from covid times where sometimes things just weren't available and forgiveness was plentiful. But if you can get one in advance there's no reason to not to. I don't think my 3C DD has actually needed hers yet, but they only got to Bermuda so far and that's not as demanding as Europe.
 
StPaulDad said:
Our experience was from covid times where sometimes things just weren't available and forgiveness was plentiful. But if you can get one in advance there's no reason to not to. I don't think my 3C DD has actually needed hers yet, but they only got to Bermuda so far and that's not as demanding as Europe.
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Actually, it is. Bermuda requires a passport for US citizens. But when cadets travel internationally as part of academy programs, they don’t use anything more than their CAC. That goes for Bermuda (several times) and 4 different European countries my grad went to. Some by boat, some by plane. By all means, those on a waitlist should do whatever they want- I’ve given them the way to handle it - they’d rather spend money on a long shot hope and dream than pick up the phone. But they should book an over seas vacation so they will actually get some use out of a passport, because they won’t even if they are one of the very few to get plucked off the waitlist for CGA.
 
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Just going to leave a little tip here. I didn't realize I needed an appointment at the post office to get a passport when I was going to get mine renewed before swab summer, but when I got there they told me I could go to the county clerk's office and they would take walk-in passport applications. I am unsure if this is done everywhere, but it was incredibly helpful for me personally, and after reading much of this thread it seems like it may be a lesser-known solution.
 
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