I received my passport last week. I submitted the renewal about three weeks ago, so the turnaround time was actually much faster than I expected.
Unfortunately, I just noticed that it has the wrong place of birth. I'm not Swiss, but it shows Switzerland in the place of birth field.
I couldn't understand what went wrong until I looked at the actual renewal form that I mailed it. I filled out the form online on the State Dept's website then printed it out. Unless Swizerland had recently annexed Swedent, I don't think Stockholm is in Swizerland. On the form, it shows place of birth as "Stockholm, Switzerland" and I assume I missed that when I printed out the form. The expired passport that I submitted showed the correct place of birth as Sweden.
I tried the online form filler again and realized what I must have done. Sweden is just above Switzerland in the pull-down menu. I must have goofed and selected Switzernland by mistake. I did have to type in "Stockholm" so that was correct.
Will it be safe for me to travel next week and deal with the mistake after I return? Also, will they charge me the passport renewal fee again. I admit that I probably deserve 90% of the blame... but I think the passport agency deserves at least 5% or 10%, no? They have me on file from all the previous passports... plus the expired passport that I submitted with the renewal form. Or are these renewals never checked by a real human? I'm sure if I submitted a check that's $1 less than the standard renewal fee, my renewal would have been rejected and returned to me pronto!
