bureaucracy

[hudebnik]

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.

Comments

[ubiq31.livejournal.com]

Yeah :( Mine expired in May and klynn330 is now going to Germany at the end of July...I was thinking of joining her for a weekend, but there's no way my passport will be ready by then :/ I knew, 7-10 years ago, things could take 6-8 weeks...3-6 months is just atrocious, especially since it's my only ID, too...

Step in the Wayback Machine, Sherman....

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

You may recall that last year I found myself in a similar situation. I went to a passport expediting service and had a new passport within a week. You should look into it....

Re: Step in the Wayback Machine, Sherman....

[hudebnik.livejournal.com]

I think that "similar situation" was before the Feds instituted passport control for Canada and Mexico, which massively increased the demand and the backlog. I doubt it would happen within a week now.

Re: Step in the Wayback Machine, Sherman....

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

With enough money, anything is possible :->

(Still, it wouldn't hurt to ask....)

Re: Step in the Wayback Machine, Sherman....

[ubiq31.livejournal.com]

With enough money, no doubt... :)

I believe you can get proof that your application is being processed, and that's working on the US side in place of a passport...but of course, that's only on our side of things :(

I'll skip the trip...as it is, it's looking like I should be working around then and should concentrate on that :)

[ichseke.livejournal.com]

I was very fortunate -- mine expired in March, so I sent it in then (in blissful ignorance). I started vaguely wondering about it in late May, then getting concerned as I heard stories about delays, then wondering if I should panic when we found out we'd be moving. But it arrived today. Whew.

[woodwindy.livejournal.com]

apply for your child's passport now

You know, I've been reading article after article about the backup and what a dire effect it's having on travel... and that never even occurred to me. It's not as if we were planning on jetting off to Europe in the fall, but still! Argh.