Passport saga.
 

We applied to renew passports for our 10 and 15 years old sons. I was hoping we could get a 10 yr passport for the older son. It's annoying to get a passport every 5 years when the last 8 months are unusable. He is still too young for the 10 year passport. Since they are also Platinum Elite on Northwest, we do travel a lot. We are planning a trip in early March, while their passports expire in the middle of June.

We called our local post office. She told us to wait a few days as new updated forms had not been shipped to their office yet. We downloaded the new forms online and made an appointment to see the passport lady at the post office on February 1st. Both parents have to appear now, just to assure the Govt that neither of the parents is plotting to whisk a minor off to another country, like say Iran. I suppose Iraq will be Ok, now that Iraq is our friend. :D (sorry, this was OT).

About 12 days later, we received my younger son's new passport along with the old one in the mail. When my wife checked on line about my other son's passport, it indicated that his application was being processed. We figured there was no cause to worry as there was still time. On February 21st, my wife called the State Department and spoke to a person there who told her that my son's application had been sent back to us as there was a glitch with his application. Upon further investigation, he said that the passport lady at the US post office, who executed the application and was paid a fee for it did not sign my son's application. She called the passport lady to tell her what the State Department told her and made another appointment so that my wife could have the lady re-execute the application after signing it properly. At this point I was on travel to Turkey. We were just hoping that the passport lady would nit insist that we both appear in person again.

At this point, my wife alerted me, but assured me that everything was in control. I, being a skeptic, was not buying that. Here was my reasoning. The passport lady was paid an execution fee but she apparently forgot to sign one of the application forms, which can happen as we are all humans. But smart people check documents for completeness before sending them off. Secondly, it took the State Department 3 weeks to let us know, and only when we called, that application/execution form for one of my sons was not signed. One passport had been processed by Feb 10th. Both the applications were filed at the same time, but in 10 more days all the State Department did was inform us that the application was being sent back to us when, when we called. He could not tell us when it was sent back. And I was supposed to believe everything was under control! NO WAY. I asked my wife to call our Senator for assistance. The Senator's staff was very nice. The staff person got hold of the State Department to set up an appointment for my wife to appear in person at the Washington, D.C. Passport Agency to expedite the passport. The State Department person called my wife to tell her that someone would call her before the end of the day to give her the time of her appointment and that she should bring extra money for the expedited fee. They had already cashed the check we had sent for the regular fee. My wife told him she was not going to pay the expedited fee. In the mean time, the application that the Passport Office is supposed to have sent it back to us was not delivered to us yet. Another call to the Senator's office. The staff person went to bat again. When he got back to my wife, he told her, listen to this. The passport office was now saying that there was nothing wrong with the execution form and that the passport lady at the post office did sign the form. The passport office was going to send my son's passport by overnight FedEx at no extra charge or expedite fee. The next day, she got the new passport and the old one through FedEx.

Here are some things to ponder.

We never did get the "unsigned" application that the passport office claimed had been sent back to us.

The first son's old passport was cancelled on February 11th and the issue date of the new passport is also February 11th.

The older son's old passport was cacelled on February. But no useful action was taken by the passport office, either to issue the new passport, nor inform us of any glitch until the day my wife called. The passport office lied about sending us the application back and possibly about the passport lady at the Post Office having signed the application. His new passport has an issue date of February 21st.

The whole thing demonstrates incompetence. Too bad you have to go to your senator to make sure Federal Government employees do their job right and to catch their lie!

Holy Crap!!! You're scaring me...

You know what I find scary? You are the first person to find this scary although 83 people have viewed this post. There are three possibilities.
1. They opened the thread to view it, but did not read it.
2. They read it but did not understand it.
3. They read it and understood it, but thought it wasn't unusual enough to warrant a comment.

And two out of the the three possibilities are scary.

I'm nervous as can be right now. I put my passport application in a few weeks ago, and now I'm starting to regret not expediting it. The whole process is really weird. Basically there's no information out there on what's being done, nor a "real-time" processing status in the state department's website. All it says is "In processing."

I'm too nosey, and my worst fear is something is wrong.... I know, I know...

#1 for me. too long and not interested since I do not travel on US passport.

Nice to know the folks in charge of handling our personal information via our passports are liars isn't it.....??? :confused:

Oh my. Aren't we hoity toity!. :D. Why post here, if U.S. passport processing is of no interest to you? No one says you have to read it and/or respond to it. :rolleyes:

That is scary too.

I never use the passport lady at the post office.

Especially when she would not accept my not expired passport as valid ID.

Do you apply in person? Renewing adults passports is easier than renewing a child passport.

You do realise it was not the passport lady who screwed up!. It was the passport office that screwed up and lied.

The idea to go to a post office to apply for a passport and send the application to some unkown person that I only can get hold of when I call my Senator scares me.

Turned in application to Post Office in Crystal City on 1 Feb. Passports in the mail on 16 Feb. I can't complain.:cool:

neither do I.

I'd rather get an appointment with the passport office and get it done the same day.

just the thought of handing over the passport who will forward it somewhere
else for processing is scary enough for me..

I feel naked without my passport.

I remember when I used to live abroad you could get your passport renewed in an hour at the embassy. Even after 9/11, it only took a week...

I'm sure this is a very annoying issue. Passports are annoying because the US government has to issue them. Gvt workers are, generally, drab people who hate their jobs. Dont yell at me if you are one, i said generally. Be proud that you defy that stereotype.

I paid for mine to be expedited and it still took 2-3 weeks.