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Photo via Congressman Maxwell Frost
Central Floridians soon won’t have to make a four-hour drive to Miami for passport services.
The U.S. State Department selected Orlando to house the state’s second passport office, joining an existing one in Miami, announced by Orlando U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost Tuesday.
Although it’s the third-largest U.S. state by population, Florida currently has only one passport agency. California and New York, by contrast, have three agencies each. Frost has pressed State Department officials for another agency throughout his first year in office, he said.
“This is a win for people all across the South,” he said. “People have to drive hours and hours, a lot of people have to spend their own money to get a hotel overnight because it’s so far from their home, and so we’re just excited we’re going to have this office here.”
Orlando was one of six cities, including Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Charlotte, San Antonio and Cincinnati, chosen by the federal government to establish new agencies this week. The expansion aims to better serve the growing number of U.S. residents with passports, said U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in a statement.
Working-class Floridians often can’t take time during the week to drive to Miami for passport services, Frost said. Miami began offering limited Saturday hours last year at his request, but still struggles to meet the needs of millions of Floridians.
Orlando is already home to several passport counters, where residents can take passport photos, send the photos to the State Department and receive their passport by mail several weeks later. Passport offices, however, allow people to get a new passport on the day of their appointment in the case of last-minute travel needs.
The U.S. General Services Administration will now select a location for the office — a process that could take up to a year, Frost said. He is unsure how long the office will take to open after the location is selected.
The location chosen could impact the time the office takes to open. If it opens within an existing federal building, the process may take less time, Frost said.
Frost emphasized Orlando’s large tourism industry and airport makes it a fitting location to get an office. He said his team hopes to work with the federal as well as local governments to select the office’s location as quickly as possible — hopefully before the estimated one-year timeline.
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