<p>Hopefully everyone has heard what a nightmare the passport application has been this year. If not and your child will be doing a study abroad program soon, make sure their passport is up to date!!</p>
<p>We applied (expedite service) for our daughters’ passport in March for a July travel and ended up getting help from our congressman’s office to resolve the delay. We got one daughter’s passport and our other daughter’s passport was a nightmare because it got lost!!</p>
<p>What kinds of time frames are people experiencing for a new application? I heard on the news, a representative from the passport office in D.C. saying they have it to l0 weeks but want to get it back to 8 now. My H thought she was dreaming about both numbers.</p>
<p>Am sending a kid to college in So.Cal. Not so eager to have him run to Mexico but I do want to get his passport begun. I told him not to convert anything into pesos too soon, based on what we’re hearing.</p>
<p>Do it now!! I agree with your H. I spent a whole day at the DC passport office resolving my D’s lost application. Tons of people were there who applied for passports way beyond the 10 week mark and still did not get it and they were all scheduled to fly out within 3 days. Just from the handful of people I was sitting with, 3 of them were there because their application got lost too!</p>
<p>Hopefully, this mess will die down next year…but I surely could not see a light at the end of the tunnel this past month.</p>
<p>There is a thread about this in the parent cafe. My son received his today. We paid extra to have it expedited b/c I had heard how long this takes. It only took 2 weeks! I got nervous that it would take a long time b/c my son is not planning a trip, so he left the dates of travel blank. In the meantime, they took away his old passport. The only concern that I have is that his official birth certificate was not returned. I called and found out that the documents are mailed back now from a different office than the new passport is mailed from, so they assured me that son can expect to get it back in a couple of days.</p>
<p>Thanks, northeastmom, I’ll go over to Parent Cafe for more info, as well as watch out here. </p>
<p>I’m remembering losing a birth certificate and calling the hospital and city’s department of records to have a new one issued. That was from Canada. It took a long time, but there was nothing urgent on our schedule for it.</p>
<p>Lucky for you and your son!!
However, I would stay on them about the birth certificate. That doesn’t make sense to me that they did not mail it with the new passport…as it has always been done in the past for me. Good luck.</p>
<p>I called them. They told me that this is a new procedure. A processing center elsewhere verifies all documents before the passport is now isssued. I have other official copies, but it is unsettling to know that his birth cert. is floating around somewhere. I just hope that it does get to us next week. </p>
<p>I think that the mad rush for summer travel is ending and paying extra must have helped to get the passport so quickly. I was amazed, and happy to have it in hand!</p>
<p>I expedited DH’s renewal and it came in about three weeks. I sent mine regular and it has been out there in the system since mid May.<br>
We are travelling in November. If you don’t expedite, expect to wait at least ten weeks. And these are renewals where I am sending in the old passport which hadn’t even expired yet. Not for children and not new applications.</p>
<p>Ginger, I am so sorry that you had to go through that. I had to go to my car dealer twice to get temporary plates until my plates were issured. I thought that was insane, but it was nothing next to what you have been through.</p>
<p>bookworm, my son applied at our local post office. We did not go to a passport office. Perhaps that is the difference.</p>
<p>OK. We went to local Court house. The woman gave us a hard time because S didn’t have his driver’s license with him, but we had her send it in anyway with old passport, birth certificate, and student ID. My fingers are crossed.</p>
<p>I was going to wait with my 15 y/o til he turns 16 for the adult passport. So, what if he does not drive and doesn’t have a license. What will he need besides a bc to get a passport? Does school ID with a birth certificate cut it?</p>
<p>Parents should keep theirs up to date as well. What if, God forbid, your child falls very ill or is seriously injured while abroad? You will certainly want to be able to concentrate on getting to your son or daughter’s side without worrying about figuring out how to get an emergency passport.</p>
<p>This is nothing compared to what my wife is going through.</p>
<p>She had a passport issued in 1990. She last travelled overseas that summer. A few weeks ago, she used the passport as ID for a new drivers license. The DMV noticed that her name was misspelled on the passport.</p>
<p>OK. The passport office calls this a printing error. If you go to their website, it tells you to use a particular form for printing errors (DS 5514). That form says that if your passport is more than one year old, you can’t use DS 5514 and must use DS 82. But the DS 82 instructions say “I use the same name as on my most recent passport or since my passport was issued, OR I have had my named changed by marriage or court order and can submit proper original documentation to reflect my name-change”</p>
<p>So, the only option left is the application for a NEW passport (DS 11). But the instructions for that say you can only use it if you never had one, it was lost or stolen, etc., none of which apply.</p>
<p>To make matters worse, we’re going overseas the end of August.</p>
<p>Stay tuned.</p>
<p>So, we called, and actually spoke to a human. This escalated to three levels, and we finally spoke to someone who basically said they have no published way to handle this, so wife should send in the application for a renewal AND a letter explaining the circumstances, and check online in two weeks to make sure the name is listed properly - if not, to call back.</p>
<p>Northeastmom, the school ID doesn’t cut it. But don’t fret – you go with your son and with your ID and his certified birth certificate, you will be fine.</p>
<p>LWMD, Thanks. If I use my ID and his bc, will that be okay for the adult passport, or only the child passport? He still qualifies for the child passport, and I will apply for that if it makes my life easier in going through this process:) I realize that the child’s passport is for those under 16, and is good for only 5 years. I would prefer to wait and get the adult passport, and not need to deal with this anymore (good for 10 years).</p>