Friday, July 20, 2007
Blind Faith
Carl's packing did not help. No passport. He could go to Chicago or Denver but their earliest appointments are in August. That won't really help him since he needs to be in France by Wednesday at the latest. I'm feeling horrible for him. We're trying to do all we can but this trip may not happen. There must be some reason that he's not supposed to go but we might never know what that is. He's probably going to get chewed out by the Dean as well. It really isn't his fault. He applied for his renewal over 10 weeks ago (the website said that they were taking 4-10 weeks) so he thought he was okay to not pay the extra for expedited service. Our recommendation: If you're traveling in the next YEAR, you might want to pay for expedited service or your passport won't arrive on time.
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This probably doesn't help, but when we had to get our passports for our trip to Mexico in January it took 12 weeks for them to get into our hands. But these were new... I would think a renewal wouldn't take as long. Good luck... we will be thinking of you.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry that the passport hasn't come. I know they always say it takes longer in the spring/summer because they have more applications. Could he still get it today? when does his flight leave? But you're right, there must be a reason, if it doesn't get here!
ReplyDeleteMy advice is contact the airline. My brother needed his passport to go abroad last month, it wasn't in on time and, knowing the issues going on with passports right now, the airline let him go with other documentation. Then my sister-in-law FEDEX'd him the passport when it arrived for his return trip.
ReplyDeleteJane
I agree with Jane, our friend going to Canada brought a billion other pieces of documentation and they were accommodating to passengers without passports. They had too since it wasn't the passenger's faults. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThey've got special arrangements with Canada and Mexico at the moment. This doesn't apply to Europe. But, I'll pass along the information to Carl anyway.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you can't believe what the website says. It was still saying 10-12 weeks when we did ours, but the guy at the post office said they were taking longer. We used a courier service for Bella's and they did it within 24 hours. I highly recommend them. americanpassport.com It's expensive, but they did the job. We sent stuff out on a Monday and had her passport on Wednesday. Good luck! Email me or call if you want any other info.
ReplyDeleteThis is what you need to do. Call you local Congressman. I sent my passport in March for renewal. End of June I did not have it and was going to Europe on vacation. I found my local Congressman and called. Keep calling until you can find someone who can help you. What they can do is "expedite" your passport. Did you go on the National Passport Agency site to track your passport? Do that and get a locator number. Then your Congressman rep can track down your passport and see exactly where it is being processed.
ReplyDeleteI received my passport by FedEx Overnight on the day before I was to leave. Good luck!!!
This problem is not going away-- this is because the laws were passed requiring passports to Canada and Mexico. They did not forsee the problems......
Another thing -- I've heard of people paying for expedited service and not getting it within the alloted time. You can get your money back.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry I didn't check your blog until today because I would've told you about my problems before this and how to resolve it. I didn't realize he was leaving TODAY?!!
This is to "track" the status of your passport. Write down the locator number after you enter your info.
http://travel.state.gov/passport/about/npic/npic_898.html
We've been tracking and calling every day for the past two weeks. It has been sucking royally. They didn't tell us until yesterday to try and get an appointment in Denver or Chicago. He's definitely not leaving today so now we are hoping he can get out of here by Tuesday morning. If he doesn't have it by then he'll have to cancel his trip altogether.
ReplyDeleteNo advice, but lots of sympathy. That's horrible. I hope there's a way to work it out. I really feel bad for you.
ReplyDelete