I would like to relay my experiences with the dysfunctional, citizen-unfriendly and frustrating process for obtaining a passport.

My 10-year-old son’s class at Washington Yu Ying PCS is having a class trip to China next spring and he needs to renew his passport that expired three years ago. I went on the State Department website that contains instructions for completing the application, a list of necessary documents, and locations where passports can be accepted. It listed Ben Franklin Station Post Office at 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW as one of the acceptance facilities, and that this location accepted applications on Thursday’s only without an appointment, although appointments would be needed on Mondays through Wednesdays (with no acceptance on Fridays). This information was contrary to information on the USPS website, which said the location accepts applications Monday through Friday with appointments needed each day. Ben Franklin is in a convenient, Metro-accessible location, so I first tried to make an appointment there. I tried the phone number listed on the State website, which led me to a recording asking me to enter a password. Since I didn’t have a password, I called the USPS information line where, after a wait of a half-hour, a man answered and gave me yet a different phone number to call. This number led to a voice mailbox that didn’t accept messages.

So after this runaround, I decided to accept the assurance of the State site, and I took my son to Ben Franklin Station this morning, with completed application, photo and identification documents in hand. There, the staff told me they did not accept applications at all on Thursdays (contrary to both State and USPS websites) and that I would have to make an appointment. When I told them I had TRIED to do that and no one would answer their phone, they said I could make an appointment at the station IN PERSON – in other words, one has to travel to the station and sign their appointment book and then appear ANOTHER DAY to actually hand in the application! It is shocking that in the year 2014 one cannot make an appointment to apply for a passport by either phone, e-mail or Internet.
So we left, angry and frustrated at how inaccurate and misleading information being disseminated by both State and USPS had wasted our morning. We probably will have to file the application at Brentwood Station’s during walk-in hours, although that office is not conveniently located nor Metro-accessible.

State and USPS need to work together to post accurate information about when and where to file passport applications; and more fundamentally to make the application process easier, more user-friendly and less frustrating.