Passport emergency
 

My son in college didn't file for his passport till 11 working days before our departure for Europe. He paid the extra cost for expedited delivery which is estimated to be made in ten days. Anybody with experience in this ten-day delivery option? Does it work?

I'm famous for putting my passport in a secret hiding place, and then when its time to go, not remembering that place. I got a new passport this way and it all worked out fine.

You might call your congressman's office and see if they can help expedite further.

I did both of my kids passports this way<BR>and received them back in about 5 days.

If my congressperson has nothing better to do than expedite passports I'm voting for someone else next election!

Actually Citizen, the Representative from your district (as apposed to the Senator) is actually there to do just such sort of liaisson between us--the Citizens--and that great bureaucracy we all call home! You know...like they are a "representative" , get it?!

I get it. So I pay them to run interference for me when I am so shortsighted that I don't apply for my passport in time? I'm not talking about helping me out when I'm wrongly arrested and it's been stolen in a foreign country. I still think I'd like my "representitive" representing me on more important issues that someone's absentminded college kid's lack of planning! Capisco?

Do you really think your actual representative is doing this? <BR><BR>That's what congressional aids do, it's his office that helps the citizens he represents.

Sometimes you can go and pick it up yourself if there is an office nearby. We only had to drive about half an hour once to them up personally when we were in a rush.

I had to get an expedited passport when I was sent overseas on business at the last minute. It worked just fine. I believe the passport comes from the State Department, not your local congressman.

We just got passports for our children expedited and it went just fine (including a phone call from the New Orleans passport office letting us know that the 'official' birth certificate that California gave us when my son was born wasn't official enough, they needed a different version. I think this is California's way of guaranteeing additional income off of future birth certificate requests). But we got the passports in less than the expected time. It may depend upon which passport office is processing his application, but my experience is that they meet their estimates.

If I understand correctly, the job of a representative is to make sure your passport filing will go on the top of the pile, at the expense of other people who are stupid enough to believe that representant are there to vote laws or such unimportant stuff and didn't call him?

Good luck, but if it doesn't work, I hope you're leaving his butt at home. Then again, maybe that's what he's hoping for!

I had to use expedited delivery to renew my kids' passports because we learned a couple weeks before our trip that passports have to be valid in some countries at least 3 months from your date of departure (and there's wasn't). We received one passport 6 calendar days later and one passport 7 calendar days later. Don't sweat it. It will come in time.<BR><BR>Have a great trip.

Don't know where you live, but you can go directly to a passport office with papers in hand & $$$ and leave that day with the passport. The US gov website has passport info on it. You make an appointment for the day you need, usually in 1or 2 days, and take your info and go. We did it and it worked out well. We had to take a trip to Houston from Dallas, but highly recommend it. Another thought, could use www.universalpassports.com-they are awesome.

Have you tried the 900 phone number that gives you a progress report on your application? 1-900-2258-5674 is the number. You pay $1.05 a minute for personal help, less for automated info.

topping for Al

Nevertheless, your representative's office will do that expedition thing, it is part of the job description. Friends of mine have made the following kinds of requests: to get mom and dad in a military family transferred to the same place; getting tickets for the ``insiders'' tour of Congress; leaning on the INS to expedite an entrance visa if it important/necessary to a constituent; and making a phone call to expedite a passport. Its not Job One, but they do it.

After a death in the family our Congressman helped expedite getting passports for some members of my family so we could attend a burial oversees. I think it took about 4 days.

For those who might be interested, my son was told today on the 900 toll phone line (see above) that his passport will arrive on Wednesday, which means a total of 8 "working days" (i.e., non-weekend days) from filing request to receipt. The phone advice service person I spoke with said that the volume of calls he was experiencing for the purpose of requesting expedited passports is done aproximately 50% from two years ago.