Passport office coming to Central Florida. Will be second one in the state

Michelle Spitzer, Florida Today
·2 min read

Soon Brevard residents won’t have to travel hours if they’re hoping to get a passport quickly.

Orlando is one of six cities nationally that will get a new passport office, government officials announced this week. The Orlando office will be the second one in the state of Florida. The first, and currently only one, is in Miami.

The addition is an effort to meet the growing demand of Americans seeking passports, which are needed to travel internationally.

According to the Department of State, more than 24 million passport books and cards, the most ever, were issued in fiscal year 2023. The number of Americans with passports today is 48% - a huge increase from 1990 when it was just 5%.

Offices like the one in Miami and the eventual one in Orlando are for travelers with “urgent needs” who are traveling internationally within 14 days. Appointments must be made to be seen at one of these offices.

Where will the Orlando passport office be?

U.S. Passport
U.S. Passport

Details on where the office will be in Orlando have not been released just yet.

However, wherever it ends up in Orange County, it’s a much closer drive than Miami. The next closest office is in Atlanta.

When the six new offices open, that will bring the number of passport agencies nationwide to 35. These 35 offices are used for urgent travel needs, such as needing to travel out of the country on short notice.

When will the Orlando passport office open?

That also has not been announced.

What other cities are getting passport offices?

  • Salt Lake City

  • Kansas City, MO

  • Charlotte, NC

  • San Antonio

  • Cincinnati

Do citizens have to go to Orlando, or one of the other passport offices, to apply for a passport?

No. You can do that at one of the 7,400 public passport acceptance facilities throughout the country.

“More than 99% of Americans already live within 25 miles of an acceptance facility,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an email release.

In Brevard there are 10 of these facilities.

  • City Clerk’s office, 65 Stone Street, Cocoa

  • USPS Cocoa Post Office, 2000 State Road 524, Cocoa

  • Brevard County Clerk of Court – Melbourne Branch Courthouse, 51 S. Nieman Ave., Melbourne

  • USPS Melbourne Main Post Office, 640 E. New Haven Ave., Melbourne

  • Brevard County Clerk of Court – Merritt Island Office, 2575 N. Courtenay Pkwy, Merritt Island

  • City of Palm Bay, 120 Malabar Road, Palm Bay

  • Brevard County Clerk of Court – Palm Bay Office, 450 Cogan Dr. S.E., Palm Bay

  • Brevard County Clerk of Court – Parkway Complex, 700 S. Park Ave., Titusville

  • Brevard County Clerk of Courts – Full Service County, 400 S. St., Titusville

  • Brevard County Clerk of Court – Moore Justice Center, 2823 Judge Fran Jamison Way, Viera

Current wait times for passports are four to six weeks for routine applications and two to three weeks for expedited applications.

Spitzer is a Trending Reporter. She can be reached at MSpitzer@Floridatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Central Florida is getting a passport office. We'll tell you where