rsolomon

I'd try calling one of the agencies and see what they tell you. With the government, the only SURE way is to have everyone there.... The only thing worse than a 200mi roadtrip would be TWO 200mi roadtrips....

Richard

hollister

FYI - they are processing expedited passports in about one week right now. We applied for one for our son on 8/18 and it arrived yesterday (8/26). YMMV.

ansatzjp

update:

1. 8/26: Got a birth certificate. Still no SSN, so typed 000-00-0000. Went to the local court clerk with my spouse and the newborn baby to have all docs certified and put in a sealed envelope.

2. 8/27: Went to a passport agency at 8:30am (woke up at 5:30am to drive down there). Expected to receive the passport on the same-day, but apparently was not possible.

3. 8/28: Went again to pick the passport at around 1pm. Found a typo in the bio page. Wrong gender! Waited two more hours to pick up the corrected one.

So, I've confirmed what has been described in this thread:

1. You can "hand-carry" applications to a passport agency.
2. You can get one for your baby without SSN.

hfly

Thank you, and confirming that nothing has changed in the last 40-50 years.

ansatzjp

Thank YOU for your consistency.

stephem

A helpful thread, especially the part about entering all zeros in for the social security number field on the passport application for a newborn.

For anyone doing this under a tight timeframe, here is some guidance: Tell the hospital staff you need the birth certificate ASAP. Ours was able to expedite the processing and handoff of a critical form to the county vital records department and tell us to just go to the office for a copy several days later instead of waiting for one to be mailed. That probably shaved a week off the process.

Bottom line, if you are near one of the passport agencies, you can have a passport within a couple days of getting the birth certificate. In on one day to apply and then back the next to pick it up. We had bought our tickets months ago, figured we'd see if it worked out with the passport for the new one, and I'm happy to say it can be done very fast if necessary.

Incidentally, the little guy's SSN card showed up the day we went in to pick up the passport, so those seem to be arriving pretty quickly (much faster than with our daughter).

heraclitus

On another tangent, my 3-month old just got his passport. It's valid for 5 years. Will it matter when, say, 4.5 years from now we want to go somewhere and he looks nothing like his passport photo anymore? Or do immigration counters generally not care about that?

I'm just trying to get a sense for whether the passport actually will be valid for 5 years, or if we have to change it once he looks significantly different from the baby photo in his current travel document.

Eclipsepearl

Mine had newborn pictures in their passports and we flew through numerous passport controls without a hitch.

My older daughter was especially amusing. She has a ton of curly black hair and her eyes changed color (blue to green) at 18 months. Needless to say, she looked nothing like the newborn photo. Still, no problems.

If you're concerned, bring another form of ID with you. My children and I have a second nationality and national identity cards, which I have shown them. If you live in the U.S. (which doesn't have nationality ID cards), you can ask your local DMV for an ID card. It looks similar to a license.

vicarious_MR'er

We've traveled a lot with the tiny infant pictures and almost 5-year-olds, too, and no problems on our end, either. We also had the appearance questions wrong after a while because my son's eyes were listed as blue and his hair blond because that was true at 6 weeks old. By the time he was 5, his eyes had turned dark brown, and his hair had gotten significantly darker (although still somewhat of a dirty blond). Oh, and the height of 2 feet didn't last long, either.

daregale

The infant photo didn't pose any problems for our son either, but the short validity period of the passport almost did when we realized that although it's technically valid for five years, in actuality it's quite a bit shorter because so many countries require X weeks or months of validity for entrance.

Redhead

Just a hint for those in my situation - I'm a single mom by choice and my daughter does not have a father listed on her birth certificate. I was able to apply for her passport solo (obviously no father needed at application) but I have an extra copy of her BC that I keep with her passport so when we travel to countries (like Canada) that require non-traveling parent permission for the child to enter, I can prove that I am the sole custodial parent.

Eclipsepearl

Good advice for when the other parent is deceased, but obviously take some sort of document to that effect...

fredandgingermad

I have the same thing and have found having my daughter's BC with me useful on occasion, never had problem with the infant photo though, although we got a couple of comments towards the end of its validity about the reasoning of keeping the same photo

heraclitus

Good to know... thanks for the advice, all! Out of an abundance of caution I will bring the munchkin's birth certificate along, but glad to know I won't have to spring for a new passport prematurely.

suranyi

It may be useful to note the following, which is towards the bottom of the State Department's web page describing their passport photo requirements:

http://travel.state.gov/passport/ppt...oreq_5333.html

"If the appearance of your child under the age of 16 has changed due to the normal aging process, you do not need to apply for a new passport for him or her."