Passports

Our neighbors have an appointment with the Houston passport office in
the morning. Rachel ordered her passport in March. Since she was
born here, it was no big deal to go down to the courthouse and get
another birth certificate.

She leaves for Rome on Monday.
--
dillon

The pen may be mightier than the sword, but I've never
seen a .sig beat a Sig.

On Jun 6, 8:19 pm, Dillon Pyron wrote:
Our neighbors have an appointment with the Houston passport office in
the morning. Rachel ordered her passport in March. Since she was
born here, it was no big deal to go down to the courthouse and get
another birth certificate.

She leaves for Rome on Monday.
--
dillon

The pen may be mightier than the sword, but I've never
seen a .sig beat a Sig.

Read the article in todays New York Times on line edition (free).
Apply atg least 6 months ahead of trip.

Shorty wrote:

Our neighbors have an appointment with the Houston passport office in
the morning. Rachel ordered her passport in March. Since she was
born here, it was no big deal to go down to the courthouse and get
another birth certificate.

She leaves for Rome on Monday.

Read the article in todays New York Times on line edition (free).
Apply atg least 6 months ahead of trip.

I applied for my kids yesterday as we just booked a trip to London for
the end of August (yeah!!). The State Department is currently quoting
10 - 12 weeks, so we expedited. The post office clerk said they'd come
in about 5 weeks, and they would intervene and make sure we had them by
6 weeks if we hadn't received them by 5. Cost an extra $60 each, but I
really had no other choice.

At least my son's will be good for 10 years since he just turned 16!

~ Peri

sounds like fun!!

i order mike's renewal 3 weeks ago for our sept 1 trip. I hope it gets
here!!
sheee

"Peri" wrote in message
...
Shorty wrote:

Our neighbors have an appointment with the Houston passport office in
the morning. Rachel ordered her passport in March. Since she was
born here, it was no big deal to go down to the courthouse and get
another birth certificate.

She leaves for Rome on Monday.

Read the article in todays New York Times on line edition (free).
Apply atg least 6 months ahead of trip.

I applied for my kids yesterday as we just booked a trip to London for the
end of August (yeah!!). The State Department is currently quoting 10 - 12
weeks, so we expedited. The post office clerk said they'd come in about 5
weeks, and they would intervene and make sure we had them by 6 weeks if we
hadn't received them by 5. Cost an extra $60 each, but I really had no
other choice.

At least my son's will be good for 10 years since he just turned 16!

~ Peri

Peri wrote:
Shorty wrote:

Our neighbors have an appointment with the Houston passport office in
the morning. Rachel ordered her passport in March. Since she was
born here, it was no big deal to go down to the courthouse and get
another birth certificate.

She leaves for Rome on Monday.

Read the article in todays New York Times on line edition (free).
Apply atg least 6 months ahead of trip.

I applied for my kids yesterday as we just booked a trip to London for
the end of August (yeah!!). The State Department is currently quoting
10 - 12 weeks, so we expedited. The post office clerk said they'd come
in about 5 weeks, and they would intervene and make sure we had them by
6 weeks if we hadn't received them by 5. Cost an extra $60 each, but I
really had no other choice.

Sounds like a great trip!! You should have your kids passports in time
without a problem.

sue

sheree wrote:

i order mike's renewal 3 weeks ago for our sept 1 trip. I hope it gets
here!!

We have 12 weeks before our Sept. 1 cruise and Mike should have his
passport in plenty of time. We sent our renewals in 6 weeks ago and
figure another 4 to 6 weeks before we get it.

sue

Peri wrote:

I applied for my kids yesterday as we just booked a trip to London for
the end of August (yeah!!). The State Department is currently quoting
10 - 12 weeks, so we expedited. The post office clerk said they'd come
in about 5 weeks, and they would intervene and make sure we had them by
6 weeks if we hadn't received them by 5. Cost an extra $60 each, but I
really had no other choice.

At least my son's will be good for 10 years since he just turned 16!

~ Peri

A friend of mine applied for an expedited passport 12 weeks ago and her
passport has not arrived, yet. Each passport office operates
independently, so yours may arrive sooner. Since your application is
for children, maybe that will help.

Peri, I hope you have a great vacation in London.

Becca

"Peri" wrote in message
...
Shorty wrote:

"...... The post office clerk said they'd come in about 5 weeks, and they
would intervene and make sure we had them by
6 weeks if we hadn't received them by 5."


This is another one they can add to the list of "BIG LIES."

I have had 7 passport for my grand kid, including 2 renewals that I sent in
10 weeks ago. I started calling and emailing after 6 weeks. Lots of "We are
sorry, but we are very busy" answers, but no passports.

I would have to agree with other posts, apply 6 months out. Do not wait.
Apply at a passport office, , in person, not a post office, if possible.

Good luck

My wife and I applied for our passports in Dec of "06 for a cruise we
are taking in Feb of "08.
Got our passports in last week of Jan of this year.

JDR

AP News Jun 7, 7:26 PM EDT


Feds to suspend new border rules to ease passport crunch

By MATTHEW LEE and DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writers






WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is poised to suspend a
major post-9/11 security initiative to cope with increasingly angry
complaints from Americans whose summer vacations are threatened by new
passport rules.

A proposal set to be announced as early as Friday will temporarily
waive a requirement that U.S. passports be used for air travel to and from
Canada and Mexico, provided the traveler can prove he or she has already
applied for a passport, officials said Thursday.

The suspension in the rules is aimed at clearing a massive backlog of
passport applications at the State Department that has slowed processing to
a crawl, they said. Some officials said the change would last several
months; others said as long as six months.

But the plan had run into opposition from the Homeland Security
Department, which controls U.S. border points and fears the move could make
it easier for terrorists or other undesirables to enter the country, the
officials said.

Instead of a passport, travelers will now be able to present a State
Department receipt showing their passport application is being processed,
and a government-issued ID such as a driver's license.

Homeland Security signed off on the proposal on Thursday after
consultations with the State Department, the White House and members of
Congress, who have been deluged with complaints from furious constituents,
according to four officials at the agencies involved.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision has
not yet been announced.

"This is pre-decisional, and I have no comment," DHS spokesman Russ
Knocke said.

Under the plan, those without passports would receive additional
security scrutiny when they travel, which could include extra questioning or
bag checks, according to one official familiar with the discussions.

The suspension will give the State Department time to deal with a
surge in applications that has overwhelmed its processing centers since the
new rules took effect earlier this year.

The backlog has caused up to three-month delays in issuing passports
and ruined or delayed the travel plans of untold thousands of Americans.

Frustrated lawmakers besieged with constituent complaints have
demanded relief.

Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., whose district lies near the Canadian
border, said White House officials have been on Capitol Hill trying to work
out a compromise amid what he called a turf war between State and Homeland
Security.

"White House personnel have seen the problem and they've been on
Capitol Hill working with members," said Reynolds. "I expect a plan to be
forthcoming that ... would not require a passport as long as you had an
application receipt for filing for the passport."

The State Department has hired hundreds of new passport adjudicators,
put employees to work around the clock and opened a new processing facility
in Arkansas but has still been unable to meet the demand.

Initial hopes that the delays could be overcome were dashed this month
when more than a million requests for new passports were dumped at once on
the facilities by banks contracted to clear application fee checks, a senior
State Department official said.

The passport application surge is the result of the Western Hemisphere
Travel Initiative that since January has required U.S. citizens to use
passports when entering the United States from Canada, Mexico and the
Caribbean by air.

Caribbean destinations are not included in the suspension, the
officials said.

The travel initiative, which next year will require either passports
or yet-to-be developed wallet-sized passcards to be presented at land border
crossings, is part of a broader package of immigration rules enacted after
the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

It has caused deep annoyance, particularly from those who live in
border states and make routine, legal crossings into Canada and Mexico for
business and pleasure.

Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M, whose state is on the Mexican border, said
she had been calling on State and Homeland Security to implement a
suspension for two weeks.

"I said, 'You need to take action. This is completely screwed up,'"
she said. "To say people must have a passport to travel and not give people
a passport is right up there in the stupid column."

Wilson said her office took more than 500 calls in May alone from
constituents struggling to get passports and the problem has spread from
border states to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kansas and Colorado.

Between March and May of this year, the department issued more than
4.5 million passports, a 60 percent increase over the same period in 2006,
but millions more applications are waiting to be processed, according to
consular affairs officials.

The demand is such that the State Department has warned applicants to
allow as long as 12 weeks for their passports to be issued and up to three
weeks for expedited processing at an extra fee. Previously, the maximum wait
was six weeks and two weeks, respectively.

In the meantime, would-be foreign travelers stew and fret.

Angela Pezzimenti, a recent college graduate from Allegany, N.Y.,
barely got her passport in time to make a trip to Europe last month.

"It was nerve-racking," said the 21-year-old, who finally received her
passport three days before the trip. "I was really afraid that it wasn't
going to come in time. We had everything planned, our tickets were bought,
and I was pretty worried."

The congressman who intervened on her behalf, Rep. Randy Kuhl, said he
was considering adding measures to a budget bill to provide more staff to
handle the glut of applications.

"I don't think the government was prepared," said Kuhl. "We've had
calls from people who are saying they are supposed to travel in two days,
but they don't have a passport and they're going to lose their money."

Wendy Berry of Franklin, W.Va., applied in March for a passport for
her 18-year-old son, Jonathan. But the day he was to leave to visit his
sister in Peru, his passport hadn't come.

"There are two things I wish they would do," she said of the
government. "The only really responsible party is the passport office. I
wish they would be held accountable. And I wish they would staff more
people. The whole system is ready to collapse."

---

Associated Press writer Jennifer Talhelm contributed to this report.

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