Originally Posted by PVDProf

Continued thanks for all the information and ideas. Today's update:

I went to the Seattle UPS distribution center, and they said that, in fact, the last physical scan of the package had been in Oakland on Friday. Everything else was of containers that it was supposed to be in, but was not scanned when those containers were unpacked.

With little hope it would materialize today, I went to the Seattle passport office and secured a brand new passport. It's nice that we have friendly and helpful employees at all levels of government here.

A Briggs was less helpful than I would have hoped. Many people were apologetic and called me during the day. But all said that their consular relationships did not extend to same-day approvals. They said the best thing to do was go very early myself and plead my case.

So, I'm sitting at SEA with my new passport, headed to SFO to be at the consulate in the morning. The vibe I get is that I've got about a 70% chance, which I'll take at this point. Wish me luck!