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Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Travelers Beware: Or Be Caught in a Bureaucratic Nightmare
Brian Tamanaha
If you plan to travel abroad any time in the next six months, read this post.
Comments:
Wow. Whirledview has a bunch of informative posts on this crisis, starting here:
http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirledview/2007/05/the_erratic_sta.html Their advice: call your Congressperson! Good luck.
This has been happening so frequently and to so many people that the gummint has relented on their passport requirement for trips to Canada/Mexico/Caribbean (Arne types while ensconsed in a hotel on a Caribbean isle), and will not require passports for a while. But because of this new requirement, the passport offices have been totally swamped, and the backlog is terrible. Lots of horror stories about people losing non-ref tickets for their honeymoons, and such.
Yes, if you don't have a passport, start early There's "expedited" service for a fee, but no guarantees that "expedited" service will get you a passport by a fixed date. I suspect that maybe I ought to get myself a new passport too ... down to only two blank visa pages even with almost four years left on it. Plan ahead as they say, and don't get caught flat-footed. Cheers,
Welcome to Bush's America where we specialize in loyalty and incompetence. Just be thankful all you need is a passport.
Do indeed call your Congressman immediately, explain the situation and ask for assistance. Then call the State Dept. Passport Service (with whom you've already spoken) and inform them that you have called your Congressman. This will instantly get the cased flagged as a "Congressional" and should expedite its processing.
I must have been lucky, as I sent my passport renewal application in the last week of May and received my new passport in a little over 3 weeks.
*NOTE* - I did not pay for the expedited service.
No wonder you "don't love your country" Brian. Oh well, now you will have some more free time to plot her downfall.
I talked to a csr at Passport Info Ctr today who said that if there's not an appt available through the automated system and you are traveling within 3 days, they can make you an appointment, which corresponds with the info you received on special treatment if you are within three days. Maybe if you call tomorrow (within three business days of Sunday July 1st) you'll get through to a csr who will make you the appointment you need. Worth a try.
Thanks for the tip. I'm going to make an appointment as soon as possible for my July 25th trip, even though I'll be sending in an expedited request as soon as my birth certificate arrives in the mail.
Charles,
Just for the record: the fact that I don't "love my country" in the patriotic sense does not mean that I don't want the country to do well. Of course I want the U.S. to succeed, for that would advance the general good of our community, and nothing I said suggests otherwise. The only way to have productive discussions about serious issues is to not misconstrue the positions of those you disagree with. But your lack of sympathy is duly noted. Brian
I wouldn't blame passport problems entirely on Bush. Back in 2000, I had an unbelievably difficult time trying to get my first passport.
I had used the expedite service, and people had told me it was on its way in the mail, but it didn't come, so they told me to go into the regional office at Chicago. The problem was that my parents hadn't filled out certain kinds of paperwork when I was born in the Panama Canal Zone, so even though I had my own birth certificate, I found out (two days prior to departure) that I had to prove the citizenship of my parents in order to prove my own citizenship. Unbelievably, I found a tattered copy of my mother's birth certificate, and took it to the office the day prior to my trip. After waiting in the office for six hours, I was called to the window to show them my materials, and they looked at the certificate and were grumbling about the tear. "Can we accept that?" I blurted out something in frustration like "Oh, for the love of God, come on!" I was fixed with a hard stare, and they returned to grumbling. They decided to accept the certificate, and then the clerk leaned forward and said, "You know, you almost talked yourself out of a passport!" But they needed a day for processing, so I still missed my trip--my first professional trip to Peru, and had to reschedule for two days later, costing me $500 in flight-related nonsense and $125 in adjudication fees. I joked at the time if I had been deported to Panama, at least I would have been making progress toward Peru. To take that system, which is notoriously not focused on customer service, but border integrity, and apply the pressure of Canada/Mexico requirements is simply a nightmare. They should fix their systemic problems prior to implementing such a large change. Best of luck to you, Brian and Stephanie!
Brian:
I thought it was very empathetic of me to make excuses for your "I don't love my country" comment. Hopefully, you are able convince someone tommorow (within the 3 days) either on the phone, to get an appointment, or in person.
Fortunately, I am comforted by knowing that my country loves me, and is doing everything it can for me.
LOL ... sounds like your country's had its *feelings* hurt! Who knew America was reading your blog? Seriously, good luck w/ the passport.
Charles [after a gentle admonishment from Prof. Tamanaha]:
I thought it was very empathetic of me to make excuses for your "I don't love my country" comment. Oh. I thought you were just being a jerk. My mistake. Sorry, and I hope this post clears the situation up in a way you can understand. Cheers,
Apology accepted, Arne. The only way to have productive discussions about serious issues is to not misconstrue the positions of those you disagree with.
A few years ago I needed a passport urgently. I was able to renew through a private company who has some arrangement with the passport agency. They “walked it through” and I had a renewed passport in 48 hours, door-to-door. It was around 150$ or so at that time, but it might be worth calling. It was Passport Express, www.passportexpress.com.
One might speculate as to who holds a financial interest in those companies, but such is the nature of government these days. Less than ideal, for sure, but it worked in a pinch.
You know, this passport thing is a huge problem, made worse by both an unresponsive bureaucracy (really, one of the worst things about modern government is that somewhere along the line government agencies started getting the idea that they had the right not to answer their phones with live persons and provide information regarding the status of matters within their offices!); and also by a too-quick implementation of the new Canada/Mexico/Carribean travel passport rules.
That said, I have to say that there is a certain part of me that is actually unsympathetic. Here's a bunch of people mad because they may not be able to go on foreign summer vacations because of government incompetence. Meanwhile, this is the experience of government EVERY DAY for poor people dealing with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, WIC, the Department of Public Social Services, county jails, Medicaid, public hospitals (see, for instance, the recent death in the emergency room of LA King-Harbor Hospital), and all sorts of other government agencies that are underfunded and overwhelmed. Really, there's a lot of class bias in both the reporting of this story and the calls for its resolution. In truth, we (meaning the upper and middle classes) would all survive if we didn't get to leave the country this summer. It is too bad we can't say that about the lower classes and their dealings with government.
Dude, that sucks.
I'm going to Germany this summer for my brother's wedding and I went to get my passport back in early March. When I walked into the passport office a woman with a feverish look in her eyes held 5 $20 bills in my face and asked if she could take my appointment. Now,I was told when I made the appointment that it would take 8 weeks to get the passport, but the website said it would be 10 weeks. This lady's $100 would have paid for my passport, but adding ten weeks to the three it would take to get another appointment, plus the utter bloody uncertainty as to how long it would actually take to get the damn passport, I passed on her offer. I got my passport a month ago and am all set, thank goodness. But man, to follow all the rules and plan ahead and still get screwed, that really sucks.
apianway:
A few years ago I needed a passport urgently. I was able to renew through a private company who has some arrangement with the passport agency. They “walked it through” and I had a renewed passport in 48 hours, door-to-door. It was around 150$ or so at that time, but it might be worth calling. It was Passport Express, www.passportexpress.com. While I've used such services to get visa on short notice, I'm not sure these folks can get something out of the U.S. State Department (or whoever does it nowadays) any faster than you could yourself by standing in line. But sometimes it pays to pay someone else to stand in line.... Getting a "green card" is much worse; I've had my 6 month temp expire while waiting for the real one. They sent me back the app almost a half year later to say my picture was the wrong size. I had two different size pictures with me when I turned in the app in person, and the person there could/should have told me then and there that the ones I submitted were the wrong size; as it turns out I simply sent the other set of pictures I had with me at the time back in after they told me much later that the first ones wouldn't do, and they were the right size.... Bureaucracy; you gotta love it ... because you don't have a choice. Cheers,
I'm not buying it,Brian, and I've said before how much appreciate your point of view.
(1) both the DHS and the state department have been saying for a couple of years that when they eliminate the Drivers License/Birth Certificate option, doing so is going to create a bottle neck. those of us who don't expect the government to do us special favors got our documents in order well in advance. You've got no business bothering a Representative with your delinquency, not while Dick Cheney is making off with the Constitution. (2) I'm also not buying your claim not to love america. by citing the millions of people killed by States, you reveal how betrayed you feel by a concept you obviously once held very dear to yourself, one to which you are obviously emotionally attached. Families, for that matter, have killed many more of their members in what we today call "domestic violence." Are you going to tell me that you don't love your family because of the history families or'family'? that said, I admire your publically asserting as much about America. like the pathological violence that regrettably comes with people who claim to love family and the notion of 'family,' loving one's state or nation gets abused too. Americans should think critically about what it means to love their country.
The expedited service worked for me at least, last year. I know it's elitist -- Dilan is completely right about the whole topic -- but pay the money and they rush it. Much better than risking a travel/etc. disaster. But maybe the expedited are backlogged now too? I don't know.
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