Applying for a Passport through an Honorary Consul
Since November 1, 2007, the Passport Act requires applicants, without exception, to appear in person in order to apply for a German passport with biometric features. It is no longer possible to apply for a passport by mail.
Outside of Germany, only consular posts with career consular officers may issue passports; in the U.S., these are the Embassy in Washington and the 8 German Consulates General.
To save you the sometimes very long and costly travel to the Embassy or one of our Consulates General, Honorary Consuls of the Federal Republic of Germany have been assigned in certain states without consular posts and have been equipped with the necessary hardware and software to accept passport applications, including biometric data (fingerprints).
Apart from the regular passport fees and reimbursement of expenses for mailing the passport, the applicant will incur additional fees in the amount of 35 euros (payable in dollars at the daily exchange rate) for identity verification; 20 euros (payable in dollars at the daily exchange rate) for authentication of the signature on the passport application; and an additional fee of 10 euros (payable in dollars at the daily exchange rate) for any certification of up to 10 pages of photocopies. In addition, the costs for the Honorary Consul to send your application to the appropriate Consulate General must be reimbursed for up to 19 U.S. dollars. The consular post reviews your passport application and processes it further; they will contact you directly if any questions arise (i.e. regarding nationality or your legal name). Should a declaration of name change be required in an individual case, a fee of 25 euros (payable in dollars at the daily exchange rate) will have to be paid for authentication of the signature.
To find out whether the Honorary Consul in the district where you live offers this service, please check the contact data on this website.
