I was told on the phone Aug 13th that you cannot renew more than three months before your passport expires unless you have "a good reason". The agent agreed that travel to a place that needs 6 months left on your passport, when you have 4 or 5 months left, would be a good reason. However it would need to be backed up with proof the tickets were booked. I had a tentative trip to Singapore for 4 months before my expiry, and was told not to try to renew until I have the tickets. Ah well, the trip has been cancelled anyway, so now I'm pushing for the tickets to be issued for my November Europe trip so I can do the renewal.

It will be nice to not have to go bother my dentist for the guarantor thing. I can do everyone else's passports (even my own children - the clerk wrote "guarantor is Mom" in the margin but it all went through fine) but since my father died I don't have anyone who can do mine.