Need a US Passport? Kahului Post Office Making Process Easy on Saturday, July 31

The Kahului Post Office hosts its 4th weekend Passport Fair event on Saturday, July 31, for Maui residents and out-of-state visitors who want to apply for new US passports.

The Passport Fair, designed to make the process easy, will be held from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Kahului Post Office at 138 S. Puʻunēnē Ave. in Kahului.

Customers can register for this event by sending an email to HawaiiPassportFair@state.gov. Advance registration is required and space is limited to 100 appointment slots. Walk-in customers with completed paperwork will be accommodated only if time permits.

More than 220 new passport applications were processed at the post office’s first three Passport Fairs, held in March, May and June.

Applicants are advised to complete their DS-11 application for a new passport in advance, print it and bring it unsigned to the event with an acceptable passport photo, fees and documents. The DS-11 application form can be found at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-apply/forms.html.

Passport applicants must wear face masks and adhere to social distancing guidelines at the event.

For information on new passport application requirements, forms and fees, go to www.travel.state.gov  or call the toll-free National Passport Information Center at 1-877-487-2778.

The Passport Agency reminds travelers to submit their passport applications as early as possible, far in advance of planned travel to avoid problems with receiving their passports.

“The demand for passports remains very high,“ Kahului Postmaster Nerisha Niu said. “The COVID-19 pandemic prompted many people to postpone traveling and applying for a passport. Now that vaccinations are widespread and travel restrictions have eased, demand has skyrocketed.”

The Passport Fairs make the process of applying for new passports easy for Maui residents, especially those with schoolchildren, who don’t have the time during the week to visit a post office to submit their passport applications.

“At our last Passport Fair, we even processed applications for grateful out-of-state visitors, who said that the wait for passport application appointments where they’re from was 3-4 months long,” Niu said.