Administration Center S D County

Came here to get my passport done and had a great experience. Everyone was so very professional and you can tell they really care about being time efficient!(:
Some important tips if you’re getting your passport done:
1) Have your completed application (I did mine online and printed it out at home. So much better than doing it by hand), valid ID, previous passport, passport photo (they also offer on-​site photos which is $ 10), and birth certificate ready. This makes everyone’s life easier — staffs, yours, and the people behind you. Please do not try to argue or fight with the staff, just don’t. If you’re wrong, you’re wrong.
2) Its on the 4^th floor, room 402. You will need to check in at the desk which has 2 staff members. Come before 12 and you won’t wait in line long. It won’t be crowded, its just that handling a lot of individual people is time consuming. After you check in, you will be given a number and you must wait in the waiting area till you are called. Then someone will help you finish your passport and accept your form of payment (just do cash lol).
3) They do not accept debit or credit cards. They have an ATM in the cafeteria on the 4^th floor, but it was broken the day I went. The closest ATM is at a 7-​Eleven 3 minutes away by foot from the building.
4) Take advantage of the free 3 hour underground parking.
5) Come as early as possible. I came at 11 – 11:30 and was done at 1. The wait didn’t feel that long honestly. Just come with your phone/​tablet charged. They have free wifi.
6) Walk ins stop at 2. After that, you will only be seen if you’ve made an appointment ahead of time.
7) Its not cute to misbehave in the waiting area. Please don’t sit in the kid’s seats if you are grown, and please don’t put your feet up on the chairs. Staff will ask you to stop if you misbehave. Don’t embarrass yourself.
Hope this was useful (:

Passport office was great. Highly organized place. We got in and out without an appointment in less than an hour.

Had to get my passport and in the hopes of getting it faster in person than through mail I decided to go to the SD County Administration Center (it’s been a little over 3 weeks now since i ordered it and I still don’t have it but I heard 3 weeks is the average. In person they’ll tell you 4 — 6 weeks. my gf ordered her passport from here a few months ago and got hers in 2 weeks lucky!!). Anyway, besides the passport, I’ve been wanting to come here ever since they opened the waterfront park I just haven’t had a chance. Got here around 3pm or so on a Wednesday afternoon. I drove into the parking lot, even though there was a sign outside saying it was full. but the garage security guard let me in and there was pleeenty of parking so if you see that sign just frick’n ignore it. juuuust like city officials to lie. rofl. anyway, they’ll give you a permit for 3 hours for free (*aheim PERFECT for walking the boardwalk after you conduct your business inside the building).
the process of getting my passport was pretty easy but there was a lot of morons in front of me who don’t know how to follow directions and were hella holding up the check in desk! God bless the ppl that work here dude I know I wouldn’t have the patience. The process took probably like an hour and a half or so? I anticipated it to take forever so I brought stuff to do, but I didnt even really get that much done bc I was too busy daydreaming out the cafeteria window lol. Dude their caf is nice. I mean I guess it should be since city officials work there. lol what else do you think our tax dollars are being used for? jk. but yeah they had some awesome dishes and the view! omg be still my heart. it has a wonderful panoramic view of the bay. you can see the maritime museum and the star of india. ugh lucky. i guess if that was my view and i was a city official i wouldn’t get anything done either. lol my only complaint which is a gigantic one. was that the atm in the cafeteria doesn’t say that there’s a fee to use it. i was anticipating one but when i got my receipt it didn’t count for one at all. and then when i was looking over my bank statement i saw that i was charged $ 10 for each transaction and i made two! $ 20 to withdraw money with no warning? umn. city officials that should be illegal. how do you not have a warning about that? how inept.
anyway the grounds are beautiful. i wanted to walk around the bay but i didn’t have enough time bc i spent a considerable amount of time admiring the building and its grounds. the building itself is gorgeous actually. very art deco like straight out of sobe miami. i haven’t noticed a lot of other buildings in SD with this type of architecture so it’s definitely a gem. i could just picture it in its prime in the 30’s «welcoming residents and visitors alike, symbolizing the highest aspirations and ideals of public service that «the noblest motive is the public good» as it says on the building. there’s also a really cute area in the front of the building where i saw a couple getting married. it’s a very private little nook in the lawn with palm trees and a little vine covered canopy. also on the grounds are many pieces of art, including the guardian of the water which was sculpted in 1939. and then of course it’s fun to people watch on the waterfront park
i think at least once, everyone from SD should visit this building and get a sense of the city’s history. I didn’t see any desks that offered tours or anything, but i was kind of pressed for time bc i had a lot of crap to do for school the day that i came here. the website tho’ has a great comprehensive overview of historical/​art information so i was skimming through it while i walked around. i would love to come back and explore the area some more soon.

Every time I have to come for business it is a great experience. Parking is never a problem. I’ve never had to wait, and I always am able to get done what I need to in one visit. It is extremely refreshing to have a government run agency run effectively.

It was a very adventurous day with my niece and I. We took the coaster from sorrento valley and landed in downtown.
Thankfully the coaster was just down the street from the county clerk office since it was a hot day.
As we got to the park, you can see the excitement in my niece face. Matter of fact all the kids and kid in heart faces were filled with glee splashing around in the new water structure and play ground.

Went on a Thursday morning to witness my friends get married. staff was very friendly :) the building offers a bunch of different services so it is always packed with people. Go early :)
Oh and parking is free in their lot for 3 hours (although there’s a pay station by the entrance by the security guard that makes one think its not free) so just park on a green spot.

Passport, no appointment needed, short line, waiting time was about 30 minutes. USPS requires an appointment & they never answer the phone to set an appointment.

I would highly suggest this for anyone looking to get passport stuff done!
Especially because you DO NOT NEED AN APPOINTMENT! Also if you go in the morning around 9 there seems to be no wait! We literally waited for maybe 15 minutes. 3 of were there together getting them done and it took us about 20 minutes to complete and we were out!
I highly recommend this place!

I went here today for apply new passport. I took trolley there because I live in Downtown and trolley station just one block away from my condo.
I got there around 10.50 am and check-​in at reception. My number was 14 and just one person ahead of me. So I totally sat and wait just less than 10 mins. !!!
The officer called my number and finish my paper work just within 5 mins!!!
Total I just wasted time there just 15 mins wow it was very impressive.
FYI, go there around 10 am no line, and on Thursday! not Monday! Monday is very busy IMO.
Thank you.

My fiancé and I came here to apply for passports. We didn’t have an appointment so it took FOREVER (we waited an hour and a half on a Monday morning, got there around 9). Parking was easy and free though, and once we sat down with someone, they helped us make sure all our paperwork was correct. We told the woman helping us we were getting passports for our honeymoon, and we struck up a conversation about weddings! She was so friendly, I wish I remembered her name. It was a pleasant experience. We got our passports in three weeks and we did NOT pay the expedited fee!

I have not been to this location in person, but I did just make a phone call regarding the status of my marriage license. I got married on June 30^th and then went to pick up a copy on July 27^th from the San Marcos location (which will NOT be getting 4 stars), but was told that there appeared to be an alteration made on my license & that the state rejected it.
Anyways, I called today & it was one of the easiest phone calls that I’ve ever had to make to a business. The man that answered the call (very quickly, I might add) was very polite & helpful. He went as far as to check the one problem that may occur if I went in today (which I didn’t know about) & confirmed that everything would be ready for me if I went in today to pick up the license.
The reason for the 4 stars instead of 5 is that the license was rejected on the 10^th of July & we had not yet been notified on July 27^th. I would have really appreciated knowing about this issue before the day that I went in to pick up the record.

Arrived to get a birth certificate copy and came away impressed;
–Plentiful 2-​hr parking for visitors that have business there
–Polite, efficient security
–Clean, well-​maintained halls and passages
–Got a ticket to wait and my number was immediately called. No waiting!
Hooray! San Diegans are fortunate to have such a smooth-​running interface with local government!

I stopped by here to file a fictitious business name and I was impressed with how smoothly everything went. The security checkpoint was quick and the officers were polite, I got to the Clerks office and was impressed with their electronic number system. I got my number waited less than 10 mins, and filed the documents without any headaches. I was back in the parkign lot in under 15 minutes, which is a win in my book!
They have 2 hours of free parking as well which is nice.

My long time boyfriend, Mike, and I were planning to elope in Vegas, but changed our minds because we wanted our brothers there and the SD County Administration Center was the next best place to have our civil ceremony. After telling our families, our little wedding grew until there were 20+ people coming. This is the most convenient place to get married because it’s where you get your marriage license. For $ 100, you can get your license and a civil ceremony. If I had known that so many people were coming, I would have requested getting married outside, but since everyone wants to get married on a Friday, we had to pack everyone into the chapel. Once inside, Mike and I were in the middle of the small room with our families surrounding us. It was a beautiful ceremony and the minister was great. I honestly don’t think I would have been able to handle a bigger/​longer wedding. After the ceremony, we took pictures outside in front of the fountain and with the harbor’s ships in the background. Surrounded by loving, supportive friends and family, our wedding could not have been better!

My alarm blared angrily this morning at 6:50 am, and I rolled over annoyed, wondering why I’d be getting up so early on the first day of summer as a teacher.
Until it dawned on me that one of my good friends and co-​workers was marrying his partner of nineteen years today.
So instead of grumbling at the alarm, I got up, eager, nervous, confused to see what history would happen.
I parked at the County Administration Center, and noticed the inspiring architecture, the beautiful layout amid grassy lawns and in front of beautiful historical ships in an azure harbor. It seemed like a perfect space and a great time to change history.
People were milling about, nervous and excited, and couples were holding hands, tears spilling down cheeks as the promise and hope of a legal future challenged and energized them.
I’ve not always been a fan of same-​sex marriage, and as a young Republican activist in the 1990’s I was rather anti-​gay, a fact my mother reminded me when I told her I was driving down to the County.
«Funny how Jesus changes people’s minds,» she said. «I’m glad he did.»
I thought all these things as I stopped at a lone protester holding a sign speaking about Christ and salvation. I wanted to say so many things; I wanted to say I used to think that way, I wanted to say I feel compelled by Jesus’ love for me to try to love others in a meaningful way, I wanted to say that this seemed the wrong place to make a stand when so many other broken issues cried out.
But all I could do was look at him and say, «God bless you, sir.»
He blinked, and stammered, «God bless you too,» and suddenly looked rather deflated by the whole process. I wonder if he thought at all about what those four words meant.
I watched my friends, partners for nineteen years, step into their first legally-​recognized relationship, hand in hand, down the steps, and in front of a kindly, round faced bespectacled county officer, who helped navigate the words and symbols of legalese and ceremony as they morphed into expressions of domestic partnership.
I watched them hug each other, cry, squeeze hands softly, kiss, then hop on their matching scooters and drive off, married after two decades.
And I realized, my views had changed so much, and I stood in favor, very much of equal legal statuses for all Americans, and more importantly, how much I loved my friends.
Thanks San Diego Admin Center, for being a place of openness and understanding.