There are regional offices that once issued passports in 24 hours, Ernst said. Now they take three days and you need an appointment to get in at all. The closest fast-action offices are in New York and Philadelphia. There are none in New Jersey. In this state, there is a passport office in each county's seat.
Ocean County has one in the courthouse, plus two satellite offices.
Monmouth, despite its 607,000 peripatetic residents, has only one. It is rare, but not unheard of, for a traveler in a hurry to scream at the women when told a needed passport cannot be supplied in fewer than 10 days. A call to the office will provide a list of the requirements for a passport. Then there was the man who arrived with no papers of any kind, claiming the Bible he held was all he needed to get to Israel.