Help!Help! with our passport issues
 

Hi everyone,
I need help, we are traveling this friday and we have not received our passports yet. We applied on December 6th and were told at the PO that it would be no problem that we had plenty of time. As a matter of fact he said we should get it by Christmas not to worry about paying the additional 60 per passport to expedited it because it wouldn't be neccesary, big mistake from our part listening to him. Went on their website to check the status of our application and it said that we should get it by the 17 or on before the 17th. Called last monday and the lady that answered said that it was still being processed that if I hadn't received them by monday to call THEN and pay the 60 per passport. My husband said not to wait and just pay the additional fee so we could get them last week. She said we would get them by last Thursday, nothing. Needless to say, if I would have listened to this lady I really would have been in trouble due to the fact that monday was a holiday. Called this morning was on hold forever the lady this time did not want to give me information on my husband's passport which no one else had a problem with. She said that it's still being processed, I told her we are flying this friday, nothing could care less said my husband has to call. My passport she could give info on, it's still not out yet. I am really panicking here. Could anyone give me ideas or suggestions on what I can do????. I never expedted this to happen. Oh and by the way now every time I call the call gets disconnected because of high volume of calls.
I really need help here.
This is our first trip to Europe and we are celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary on the 26th.
THANKS FOR ALL INFO

My first recommendation is to have your husband call like that controlling official/gate keeper has requested. Or, you could try calling yourself and hope to get someobody who is more helpful.

Nicky,

I'm so sorry for your trouble. My passports were delayed last year as well. I would call and expedite it ASAP, becuase normal processing is 1-4 months. Mine took 3 months last year. Also, find out about moving your flight back to a Saturday departure JUST IN CASE. You want to find out alternate routes in the event you dont get your passports in time.

Good luck!!!
Natalie

Mine hasn't expired yet but when I re-new, I'm going to allow a lot of time. I was thinking that perhaps with the new security laws there might be a lot of people that never needed a passport before..like going to Canada or Mexico, are now having to get passports, so everything is taking longer. Good luck and I certainly hope that this will be resolved for you. Very stressful, I know.

Often the office of a Senator or congressmember can cut through the bureaucracy for constituents in a jam. This might be worth a try in your situation. Good luck.

As kayd suggests, try your local congressman. This happened to us in 2000 when my son had to renew his passport. We were leaving Friday and still didn't have it on Tuesday. Our calls (at $4.95 per) were useless; they advised us to stop in the passport office in NYC on our way to the airport! My husband called our congressman and it was overnighted to us.

Definitely get your Public Officials involved if you can. Do you know/are you/have you been in the military? That could help in getting through.

Good tip about contacting your local congressman! Who knew?

I'm sorry for your passport trouble, in 2005 when I was going to thailand for the first time, I had to renew my passport, I allowed plenty of time, and even paid the expidited service, and on tuesday before the Friday I was sceduled to leave I still had not recieved my passport. I was in a panic as well, and I guess I lucked out, but I called the passport toll free number, which they were on extended hours due to the amount of people processing, but anyway I lucked out and got someone on the phone who actually seemed concerned, and he actually gave me a number to the passport agency that process the passports for my region. the next morning I got a call back at like 8:00, and my passport was Fed-Exed that day, I received it on Thursday morning, a day before I left.

So I would suggest that you try and get a hold of the local passport agency that handles the passports for your region, try and scedule an appointment with them asap. Fortunatly, they were able to finish processing mine with info that I gave them on the phone, and some info I faxed.

good luck,
rachael

http://travel.state.gov/passport/abo...ncies_908.html

you can find which agency is processing your application on the state department website, and call the public phone number to schedule an appointment as quickly as you can. even if you have to drive a few hours, or even fly a short commuter flight there, this is probably your best option at this point.

I was in the exact same situation, and the state department public line was telling me the same thing that your getting. once I was in contact with the Houston Passport Agency, things happened within 24 hours.

Hi everyone,
Thank you so much for your help. My husband did call and spoke to an agent who actually took the time to help him she sent an urgent message to have it expedited, which they never did in the first place. I am so upset because no one did that for me last week KNOWING that we were traveling this friday. If any of the agents that I spoke to last week had actually wanted to help me they would have done what this agent did today. If we would have given correct information at the Post Office we would had just paid the additional fee to have it expedited. This is turning out to be a nightmare, we have a lot of money invested in this trip and not to count the sentimental reasons of our trip. Again thank you for all your help.

Hi Nicky,

Call your Member of Congress and your two Senators.

((I))

What do I do when I call our Congressman??? who do I talk to??? What do I need to say, so that they are willing to help and take me seriously. I have been on hold for over 18 minutes trying to get someone on the line to give me our local offices phone number and try to speak to someone that can help. I guess I'll be doing this all day, not that I actually have things to do..
Thank you again

You call either the senator's/congressman's local office in your city or the US Capitol switchboard (202-224-3121)and ask to be connected to the Senator's/congressmenber's office. Then you explain your problem to the person who answers the phone in that office. (Pick one office to call, don't gum thins up by tring two officials or the loacl and DC offices).

Every congressman I know of has a local office/constituency staffer(s). They'll know what to do - this sort of thing happens all the time -- so it is a panic for you but sort of business as usual for your representative.

Good luck

Hi N,

>What do I do when I call our Congressman??? who do I talk to??? What do I need to say, so that they are willing to help and take me seriously.<

You can look up your MC and Senator's office numbers on the internet.

You will talk to a receptionist. You will say that you need X's help with a passport problem.

You will be connected to an assitant.

You will tell him/her that you applied on Dec. 6, and at the advice of the issuing officer you didn't ask for expedited service.

You are leaving Fri and still don't have your passports.

You will tell them that you are willing to pay for expedited srvice, but you can't get someone to help you.

You will then explain that you are a lifelong Democrat/Republican/Independent/Socialist, or whatever X's party is, and that you voted for X and would greatly appreciate help in this matter.

They usually come through.

Best of luck.

((I))

I just spoke to someone from our Senate's office and said he'll try to do his best to help but might not have enough time since we need it for this friday. After being on hold for over 20 minutes when I gave the lady from the passport office my social security number somehow the call got "disconnected". Thank you for suggesting calling our local senate and congress office, if it weren't for your knowledge I would have never know that they could actually help.

nicky26, we are pulling for you with fingers crossed!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have my fingers crossed for you! As an English person living in Holland I find this story incredible- I renewed my (British) Passport last year in Amsterdam, sent it off by post and got it back 3 days later!

I wanted to follow up with all of you who were kind enough to help us out. I called the passport office again last night, and I finally got someone on the line who was simpathetic enough to help me. It was my third, and she actually said that I would get mine next week, I panicked and said, do you realize we are suppose to leave this friday and she said no and asked if that was the third time I called and I actually thought she was going to be rude about it, but then she started looking into it. She said no, it's your third call and the other agents before her didn't take the time to send an urgent message which she did while speaking to me it took her less than a minute. She was so nice and said that they will be working on it that night and that my husbands they had started on that afternoon.
This morning at 930 am I get a call from our Senator's office, Mel Martinez, and she wanted to give me an update. It turns out that they finished mine last night and was mailed Priority Mail and my husbands they will finish today and ship FedEx overnight, she even gave me a tracking # for my husbands. I asked her if there was a reason why they just didn't overnight mine, which I would have felt more comfortable with and she thinks that since it was finished late last night, that it might have been too late for a FedEx pick up. Now I'm crossing my fingers that we don't have any further delays. I am calling them right now as I'm typing just to verify everything.
I left a message for a supervisor from the Post Office where we applied for the passport to call me. I just want to let her know what we have been going through due to the information that we were given by their office. I just don't want
others to go through what we have been going through.
Your information really helped us, if it weren't for you out there I don't think we would have gotten anywhere. It is sad to see how those people at the passport agency just said well you have to wait.
Follow up, I just called again and now it turns out that mine has not gone out, and since I was never given the choice of overnight, then they are just gonna send it priority, my husbands is going out overnight because the lady he spoke to actually took the time to ask and included that on his request.
It really is looking like we are not going to have them in time, I thought that maybe we would but after talking to another person who really didn't want to help but actually tried to after I forced her by not giving up. Said that she is going to request another passport and just overnight it and it should be here by friday am. Who knows by now.
I just hope that what we are going through helps other avoid the situation.

Nicky