How to Become a Passport Acceptance Agent: Eligibility & Training

To become a passport acceptance agent, you need to be a permanent employee at a government facility that the U.S. Department of State has designated to accept passport applications, meet the personal eligibility rules in 22 CFR 51.22, and complete State Department training before your employer certifies you. You cannot apply as an individual; designation flows through your employer.¹

Step 1: Work at an Eligible Facility

Federal regulations limit the role to employees of specific government organizations. If you don’t already work at one of these, that’s the first thing to change. Eligible employees include:

Staff in the clerk’s office of any federal court
Staff in the clerk’s office of any state court of record
Workers at U.S. post offices selected to accept passport applications
Civilian or military personnel at Department of Defense installations authorized to accept applications
Staff at other federal agencies selected for the program
Other persons specifically designated by the Department, a catch-all the State Department uses sparingly

The common thread is government employment. The State Department has taken the position that federal law prohibits non-governmental organizations from participating, so private businesses, nonprofits, and commercial entities cannot become acceptance facilities. Even nonprofit libraries that previously accepted applications have been ordered to stop.¹

Step 2: Meet the Personal Eligibility Requirements

Even at a qualifying employer, you personally have to clear four bars. Your employer certifies each of these on your behalf:

Citizenship. You must be a U.S. citizen or U.S. non-citizen national.
Age. You must be at least 18.
Employment status. You must be a permanent employee of the facility. Ad hoc workers, contractors, and volunteers are specifically excluded.
Criminal history. No federal or state felony conviction, and no misdemeanor conviction for crimes involving moral turpitude or breach of trust. The regulation names embezzlement, identity theft, misappropriation, document fraud, drug offenses, and dishonesty in carrying out a public trust responsibility as disqualifying misdemeanors.

The contractor and volunteer exclusion catches some people off guard. If your position is contracted through a staffing agency rather than a direct hire by the government office, you would not qualify even if you sit at that front desk every day.¹

Step 3: Get Your Facility Designated

You don’t submit anything to the State Department yourself. The head of your facility contacts the appropriate regional passport agency and submits an application for designation. That application covers the facility’s security measures, staffing plans, and ability to handle passport application traffic. The State Department reviews whether the facility meets its operational standards, including physical accessibility and secure handling of sensitive documents.

Review timelines vary with the regional office’s workload and how complete the submission is. Incomplete applications are the most common cause of delays. Once approved, the facility receives its official designation and can begin certifying individual employees. The Department retains the authority to withdraw a facility’s authorization on a case-by-case basis at any time.¹

Step 4: Complete State Department Training and Get Certified

No one can begin accepting passport applications until they finish training provided by the Department of State. The regulation is blunt: training “must be successfully completed before accepting passport applications.” Training covers identity verification, fraud detection, proper execution of application forms, and security protocols for handling sensitive documents.²

Certification becomes official when the head of your facility submits documentation confirming both your eligibility and your successful completion of training. Agents are also expected to take periodic refresher training to stay current with procedural updates, though the regulation does not set a fixed recertification cycle.

What the Job Actually Looks Like

Once you’re certified, the core duty is executing passport applications. For each applicant in front of you, you verify their personal appearance, examine and document their identification, confirm the passport photograph looks like the person standing there, place the applicant under oath, and witness the DS-11 signature yourself. You then certify on the application that every one of those steps occurred. That certification is your personal attestation, and it carries real weight.³

Applications, supporting documents, fees, and photocopies must sit in a lockable drawer or secure storage when they aren’t being actively processed. The sealed package then goes to the State Department. Facilities are not permitted to retain copies of executed applications. Your facility collects a $35 execution fee for each applicant it processes, separate from the application fee the applicant pays to the State Department.⁴

Rules You’ll Be Bound By

Acceptance agents are prohibited from any relationship that could be perceived as a conflict of interest. The regulation specifically calls out providing commercial services related to the passport process, so you cannot run a side business charging applicants for passport photos, expediting, or form-filling tied to your agent role. The facility exists to serve a government function, not to generate revenue beyond the $35 execution fee.⁵

The Department can withdraw an individual agent’s authorization or revoke a facility’s designation at any time; the regulation simply states that agents are authorized “unless the Department in an individual case withdraws authorization.”¹ Beyond losing your designation, the criminal exposure for passport-related fraud is severe. Under federal law, forging or misusing a passport carries up to 10 years in prison for a first or second offense, 15 years for subsequent offenses, and up to 25 years if the offense facilitated international terrorism. Agents who knowingly process fraudulent applications or falsify their certifications face the same federal criminal liability as the applicants themselves.⁶

If you already work at a court clerk’s office, an authorized post office, a DoD installation, or another eligible federal agency, ask your facility head whether it’s already a designated acceptance facility and what internal steps are required to be put forward for training. That conversation is where becoming an agent actually begins.

1
eCFR. 22 CFR 51.22 – Passport Agents and Passport Acceptance Agents
2
eCFR. 22 CFR 51.22 – Passport Agents and Passport Acceptance Agents – Section: Training
3
eCFR. 22 CFR 51.22 – Passport Agents and Passport Acceptance Agents – Section: Responsibilities
4
U.S. Department of State. Passport Fees
5
eCFR. 22 CFR 51.22 – Passport Agents and Passport Acceptance Agents – Section: Responsibilities
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1543 – Forgery or False Use of Passport