Passport!

Parent Cafe
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<p>We needed a first passport for one of our kids in less than two weeks earlier this summer. Having read all the horror stories in our local newspaper, we decided that we would both pay for the governements expedited service, and use a private expediter as well. </p>

<p>Man were we impressed. We applied and paid the governement fees at our local library, which sealed everything in an envelope. Then I drove over to the private expediter with the sealed envelope and a fairly large check. I had already made sure they could have the passport back by a few days before we needed it, and presto! Worked like a charm. Not only that, I got to go pick up the passport when it arrived at the expediter’s office, so there was no issue with worrying about Fedex or USPS. </p>

<p>I realize that there is a low probability that a standard passport application will go astray, but given the nightmare consequences of having no passport when you need it (appealing to one’s senator; 27 hours on hold on the passport hotline; postponing trips), I would go through a private expediter again in a NY minute (especially since they would appear to be able to produce passports in a NY minute!)</p>

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<p>My brother-in-law’s expedited passport still took over 2 months! I was lucky enough to get mine in a couple weeks, but that was back in early April. The rest of my family had regular processing. H had a renewal … it was applied for a week after Easter & came TODAY!!! D& S applied for first-time passports same day as; D got hers July 14 & S got his a week or so later.</p>

<p>When we went through the hassle at the airport with showing all info because we didn’t all have our passports, the ticketing agent for the airline observed that the government should have been able to anticipate the workflow & staff accordingly. If that ain’t irony, I don’t know what is!</p>

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<p>My dad got his passport through a private company also. He mailed the paperwork last Fri. at 7:00pm and had his passport in hand by Tues. morning.</p>

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<p>Hi all!</p>

<p>Ok, coming out of retirement for a problem my husband and I have right now re: passports…</p>

<p>As many of you know, I was asked to leave my grad program after my qualifying exam in May. Many of you also know I got married in April.</p>

<p>Well, due to the stress/money issues in graduate school, we were waiting to take our honeymoon until I found a job. The plan was for me to find a job, and set the start date two weeks later so we could take our dream honeymoon, a backpacking trip through Europe (as this would likely be our last opportunity to backpack through Europe).</p>

<p>My husband applied for his passport (non-renewal) on June 1, as we had no defined travel plans by that time, he couldn’t put down a travel date (and was likely shoved to the bottom of the pile). Well, things moved very fast in July and I was offered (and accepted) a position as a big oil company geologist. </p>

<p>Things should have gone more smoothly, but due to issues regarding setting up relocation dates and getting a lease signed in Houston, we were unable to make our travel plans until last Friday (7/27) to leave next Thursday (8/09) for two weeks. As soon as the live phone lines opened this morning for passport customer service, my husband called to set up an appointment at the nearest local passport agency (Chicago). Well, they are already booked up completely for the next two weeks and are unable to do anything except change it to expedited service.</p>

<p>Other important bits of information is that my husbands passport status on the website has been reading as “in process” since 7/25 and is in New Orleans (from the website, it looks like New Orleans is in charge of a third of the country). He also called our congressperson’s office and left a message for the person solely dedicated to dealing with passport issues (a sign of the times…).</p>

<p>Is there anything else we can do (short of flying down to NOLA, which is not an option due to $$$)???</p>

<p>We really wanted to plan this trip earlier, but we simply couldn’t. Also, it’s my husband’s first opportunity to travel abroad (well other than Toronto) and I’d really hate to have wasted $3000 in airfare plus what we already have spent to reserve trains…</p>

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<p>Wow, sorry for bumping such an old topic but this thread was very helpful!</p>

<p>I applied for a first-time passport yesterday 08/17 and used expediated. Even though I will probably not travel overseas until at least December, I wanted to get the passport as soon as possible.</p>

<p>Quick question: Did anyone else find it strange that they require us to submit actual birth certificates? They say all documentation submitted gets sent back, but I felt very nervous trusting such an important document in the hands of the federal gov - what if they lose it?</p>

<p>I read northeastmom’s ordeal with a lot of interest particularly - how horrified I would be if my birth certificate didn’t show up!</p>

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<p>cclu, I guess it is necessary. I was as nervous about it as you are, but we did get the birth certificate back. I just wish that I knew that passports and birth certificates were now being mailed under seperate cover. They put a notice explaining this into one of the envelopes, but it was put in with the envelope that contained my son’s birth certificate rather than the one that had his passport.</p>

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<p>cclu, I wouldn’t worry too much. I don’t know anyone whose birth certificate has been lost in the process. This is standard procedure, and really not strange at all! :slight_smile: If, by some chance, it does end up lost, you can always apply to get another one.</p>

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<p>I think it’s a good idea to have an “extra” official one anyway (keep it in the safe deposit box). You can order them from the township where they were born usually for about $5-10. We’ve had cases where we needed to show/send the original to two places at once. My son needed to send one for his passport at the same time his college was requesting one (we sent a copy to the college coz that’s all we had but I’m not sure if that’s good enough).</p>

<p>I had to get another one for myself recently (for my passport) and found out that I had to go to my state center because the local center had been compromised or something. While there, I got official copies for myself and my brothers (to save them the trouble if they ever needed them). Extra copies only cost $1 or 2.</p>

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<p>WOW…I don’t necessarily want to get anyone’s hopes up, but my d. received her passport last week! She applied early July, and it was not expedited. That was much faster than expected. While technically a new application, since her former one was issued prior to age 16, she did send the former passport with the new paperwork. That may have made the difference.</p>

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<p>It’s impossible to know each individual circumstance, doubleplay and chocoholic, but the reason why different passports take differing amounts of time may be because under-16s are entered into separate databases and require different types of verification (unfortunately due to international parental abduction, a sad fact of the world we live in), previous passport issuance of some family members, “strange looking” certification – some birth certificates are in terrible shape or are non-standard format, there are loads of reasons why certain passports get delayed. Another reason can be – the quality of the passport pictures submitted. Some photos affixed to the forms are not the required size, or the person is sitting too close to the camera, or the head does not fit within the preset scan size (chin below, person looking down, or slightly blurry). Sometimes the app is kicked out by NPC (National Passport Center) even if the passport official thinks it’s all well and good. The beleaguered passport officer will usually resubmit those, and hope they pass a second or third time.</p>

<p>Just wish you the best of luck.</p>

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<p>

astrophysicsmom, they get a second (business) passport. The applicant needs to submit a letter from their employer stating that the employee needs a business passport due to extensive overseas travel. It should be on letterhead and contact information clearly stated. Please contact your Regional Passport Center ASAP for the latest regs on that. I would advise that the letter also request that the primary passport contain extra pages.
Good luck.</p>

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<p>I don’t feel like reading through 11 pages of this discussion, so sorry if this is a repeat.</p>

<p>My aunt, who works for the passport people, told me that if you say you need your passport by a certain date they will usually expedite it no matter what so you have it by that date. They do what they can to not inconvenience you.</p>

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<p>paying3tuitions,

</p>

<p>You will have to submit his CRBA for the passport, just like anyone has to submit an original birth certificate (which is essentially what the CRBA is). Don’t worry, you will get it back. If you do not want to stick it in the mail you will have to hand-carry it into your Regional Passport Center. They will make a certified copy for you (double-check this to make sure). </p>

<p>One of my kids also has a CRBA, I bet every overseas American kid on CC also has one. Not a big deal, passport-app-wise. Hang onto that CRBA, though. He’s also not the only person with dual Canadian-American citizenship. Just trust me on this – every Consulate in Canada sees this each and every day. Hardly any explanation of his dual-citizenship status will be necessary. Make sure you bring your own passport to the appointment. Sometimes they want proof that you can transmit citizenship to your child through your parentage.</p>

<p>Re: travel to Mexico and Canada. I just read that Sen. Carl Levin of MI was able to get a leniency agreement on travel to Canada – check his website for details, I don’t want to give you wrong info. Just a thought on Mexico – maybe your son can cross the border with his Canadian passport?</p>

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<p>Not sure what you mean by ‘for those who have to apply for new one, not mail-in renewals’, because, if you have an ‘old passport’ then it is a renewal, or what do you mean?</p>

<p>Anyway, “losing” your passport is a really REALLY bad idea. If you genuinely lose it, then you have to state that. But the consular officer will ask very specific questions about the “lost” passport – where exactly was it lost, did you file a police report, etc. and if he/she doesn’t like your answers or you seem at all nervous then it is duly noted that the loss of the passport is suspicious. Then if a future passport is really lost or stolen, it starts to look like a pattern. After a couple of cases of “lost”, missing, mutilated or damaged passports, you wind up on a database and the consular officer is within his/her rights to issue you only limited-term passports, or to refuse passport issuance altogether.</p>

<p>Anyway, you will get the expired passport back, with holes punched in it and a big stamp across the data page. Trust me, the Bureau of Consular Affairs does not want to keep peoples’ old smelly nasty passports! (yeck, you wouldn’t believe some of the specimens I’ve had to handle).</p>

<p>And sometimes it is hard to cancel those passports – with cute baby pictures, or in the case of deceased Americans overseas, and in one case I had to cancel a Bicentennial passport (from 1976!). But the applicant does get it back.</p>

<p>I apologize on behalf of Consular wonks all over the world for the difficulties people are having. Listen, I tried to convince CA to go to the paperless kiosk application system (like we use for airline e-tickets), but security concerns are just too great right now. Speaking personally, when I worked the passport line my turnaround time was 2 days from the moment I received the app until the moment it went in the mail. My applicants received their new passports in 3 days usually. But it’s a different world now.</p>

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<p>Yes, they return the passport you submitted with your renewal. I have all of my mother’s old passports, all of mine, and all of my husband’s and my kids’. It is fun to remember those trips.</p>