Four days til travel and no passport
March 12, 2022 10:53 AM Subscribe
I asked this question and was feeling pretty optimistic-we paid expedited fee, postal employee helped her complete forms/verify docs, and we contacted our congressperson. And no passport and no response from his offfice in last two weeks. Help!
We fly out to Italy from the US on Wednesday the 16th. My daughter’s passport still shows as received and processing. We have called daily to make an in person appointment since we hit the “two weeks before travel” date-only thing available has been in Puerto Rico. We live in Oregon. Last response from our congressperson’s office was on 2:27. I realized this week my daughter hadn’t filled out the privacy release they sent her-we faxed and mailed it. We called his local office-open 8-5-but working remotely due to Covid so leave a message. Did yesterday morning-no call back.
Any other ideas? I suggested she tweet at him. Call our senator? We will go with our other two kids and without her (they are minors, she’s 25) but it breaks my heart. And it’s killed all my planning excitement about this trip.
We fly out to Italy from the US on Wednesday the 16th. My daughter’s passport still shows as received and processing. We have called daily to make an in person appointment since we hit the “two weeks before travel” date-only thing available has been in Puerto Rico. We live in Oregon. Last response from our congressperson’s office was on 2:27. I realized this week my daughter hadn’t filled out the privacy release they sent her-we faxed and mailed it. We called his local office-open 8-5-but working remotely due to Covid so leave a message. Did yesterday morning-no call back.
Any other ideas? I suggested she tweet at him. Call our senator? We will go with our other two kids and without her (they are minors, she’s 25) but it breaks my heart. And it’s killed all my planning excitement about this trip.
I don't know if things have changed - they may well have - but once when I unexpectedly needed an urgent passport I went in without an appointment first thing in the morning, told them what I was there for, was told to wait until everyone else had been seen, waited patiently until the very end of the day at which point they finally saw me, and was told to come back the next morning to collect my passport, which I did.
If nothing else works by Monday and the distance isn't too great, I'd give that a try.
posted by trig at 11:12 AM on March 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
If nothing else works by Monday and the distance isn't too great, I'd give that a try.
posted by trig at 11:12 AM on March 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
The U.S. consulate in Vancouver BC is within driving distance. They are pretty helpful and efficient. You'd just have to get across the border somehow.
It might be worth checking with your adult daughter if she even wants to go to Italy. Sometimes unacknowledged reluctance manifests in weird ways.
posted by dum spiro spero at 11:52 AM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
It might be worth checking with your adult daughter if she even wants to go to Italy. Sometimes unacknowledged reluctance manifests in weird ways.
posted by dum spiro spero at 11:52 AM on March 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: During CoVid, passport offices are appointment only (and after multiple calls they told us the one in Seattle isn’t seeing people “due to construction”).
Fair question, DSS. We originally booked this trip with just kids still at home and eldest daughter decided to join us. She’s been shopping like mad for the trip and hasn’t booked any clients during those ten days-she’s a hair stylist-so she definitely is acting like someone who wants to go. She’s also a highly anxious person that gets easily overwhelmed with bureaucracy-I’m a thirty year employee of state govt and this particular bureaucracy is beyond even my experience.
posted by purenitrous at 3:24 PM on March 12, 2022
Fair question, DSS. We originally booked this trip with just kids still at home and eldest daughter decided to join us. She’s been shopping like mad for the trip and hasn’t booked any clients during those ten days-she’s a hair stylist-so she definitely is acting like someone who wants to go. She’s also a highly anxious person that gets easily overwhelmed with bureaucracy-I’m a thirty year employee of state govt and this particular bureaucracy is beyond even my experience.
posted by purenitrous at 3:24 PM on March 12, 2022
There are some walk in offices.
here is the office in SF.
posted by Oyéah at 3:29 PM on March 12, 2022
here is the office in SF.
posted by Oyéah at 3:29 PM on March 12, 2022
FWIW, they were appointment-only back then too. I begged as respectfully and unaggressively as I could and looked brokenhearted (which I was) and asked if I could stay and wait in case someone didn't show up for their appointment and there was time at the end of the day, and I explained why I didn't have an appointment or the ability to wait for one. When they let me stay and take my chances, I made sure to sit where the passport processors could see me waiting all day. It's a matter of luck whether people decide to be human or not, and distance affects whether it's worth trying at all. And definitely Covid might have made things stricter. But a lot of times people will tell you no over the phone where they might not in person.
But if walk-in offices are an option, that is a far preferable approach!
posted by trig at 4:00 PM on March 12, 2022
But if walk-in offices are an option, that is a far preferable approach!
posted by trig at 4:00 PM on March 12, 2022
Response by poster: Oyeah, that appears to be a private agency not a passport office?
posted by purenitrous at 5:51 PM on March 12, 2022
posted by purenitrous at 5:51 PM on March 12, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by purenitrous at 10:54 AM on March 12, 2022