By KRWG News
El Paso – The U.S. State Department says El Paso will be getting a passport office next year.
The $2.1 million El Paso Passport Agency is scheduled to be completed in March. A pre-opening event was held Tuesday.
The office is one of five new passport agencies nationwide.
Vincent Perez, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, says the facility will have the ability to produce and issue passports.
Passport operations spokeswoman Jacqueline Harley-Bell says it normally takes up to six weeks to get a passport processed. The El Paso site will be able to issue U.S. passports and other documents to people with an urgent need to travel within two weeks.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.