bureaucracy

Two places in front of me in the line at the Post Office today was a woman who's going abroad in five days, applied for passports for her children three months ago, and hasn't gotten them yet. (From what I hear on the news, delays of three to six months are common. When the Feds started imposing passport control on travel to Canada and Mexico, they hired "dozens of new workers to handle the added load." That's right, dozens; they needed hundreds.) She was given a form to fill out and a telephone number to call, from which she'll allegedly get a number certifying that she has applied for said passports, which will allegedly do for now (at least as far as the U.S. is concerned).

One place in front of me in the line at the Post Office today was a couple who are going to Canada soon, and wanted to know whether their three-month-old infant needs a passport. The answer was "Yes, even a one-day-old baby needs a passport to go abroad."

The moral of the story is: if you're considering getting pregnant, apply for your child's passport now. If you're already pregnant (hi, woodwindy!) and haven't applied yet, don't plan on going abroad this year.