HONOLULU — On its first day of offering U.S. passport services, the Ala Moana Satellite City Hall fielded 32 passport applicants and accepted reservations for 1,000 more.

What You Need To Know

  • The Ala Moana Center Satellite City Hall is accepting up to 32 passport-application appointments per day, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

  • Appointments take about 10 to 15 minutes

  • The city’s new initiative is meant to ease the burden shouldered bythe U.S. Department of the State’s Passport Acceptance Program, which has been dealing with a months-long backlog of appointment requests since pandemic-related travel restrictions have eased

  • Honolulu Department of Customer Services director Kim Hashiro said her department would evaluate the success of the program and look into expanding services to other satellite city halls

“We are so pleased to be providing this service to the community as travel opens up and there’s a high demand for passport acceptance processing,” said Honolulu Department of Customer Services director Kim Hashiro. “This is a first for the city.”

The office is accepting up to 32 passport-application appointments per day, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The appointments take about 10 to 15 minutes.

The city’s new initiative is meant to ease the burden shouldered by the U.S. Department of the State’s Passport Acceptance Program, which has been dealing with a months-long backlog of appointment requests since pandemic-related travel restrictions have eased.

The partnership with the city was initiated by U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, who brought the U.S. Passport Agency’s idea to Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.

“Americans want to travel again after being cooped up for a couple of years,” Case said at a news conference at the site on Monday. “But this is also about families reuniting. We have many, many families from places like the Philippines and other areas throughout the Indo-Pacific that haven’t been able to see each other for over two years.”

Hashiro said her department would evaluate the success of the program and look into expanding services to other satellite city halls.

Online appointments for a passport application can be booked at AlohaQ.org. Applications will not be accepted without all required documentation, which includes proof of citizenship, government ID and a check or money order for the passport fee.

For more information, visit honolulu.gov/csd and click on the link to passport service.

Michael Tsai covers local and state politics for Spectrum News Hawaii.