Passport Woes

[<M&M>]

Just a little story. I am not sure if it is funny or irritating yet, a little of both I think.

We booked our first cruise in August (NOS May 20th) and at the time we were told that a new law would be in effect when we cruised requiring passports. Well it was one more expense but what he heck we need them so we applied in January. Well LOL we found out 2 days after we paid that the law was delayed until 2008:eek:

Oh well we will have them anyway we thought. Well I got mine last week. My wife's came back on hold due to her birth certificate missing a date. they said that was very common, why they did not check that at the passport application desk i don't know. Well they kept her birth certificate! So now for her we have no Passport or Birth Certificate now:(

So now it is off to the town hall to try to get a new one (says fee is 30 bucks or so). And if i don't want to loose my pasport fee I need to send it back in for review... hopefully it will come back in time for the trip or I will be forced to get yet another birth certificate for the trip. God you have to love the federal govenment:rolleyes:

 

OK end rant:D

[MargaritaPlease]

why they did not check that at the passport application desk i don't know.

 

Uh... Or why YOU didn't check it before submitting?

[<M&M>]

um because I don't process passports for a living and do not even know what date they are refering to in the letter. The BC is her original one from her childhood not a duplicate and did not have any blank spots that we ever saw.

[sha88]

you have to love the federal govenment:rolleyes:

 

OK end rant:D

 

Well, at least you will be ready to cruise with for 10 years once you get the other one. Good Luck. It shouldn't be this hard, then again, it is the government ;) . My husband refuses to get his until we absoultely have to. On the other hand, I think, it is just a good idea to have one whether it is required or not.

[FitzLA]

My mom just got hers in the mail. And this is not her first passport. They sent it to her and it says she was born in Idaho. They even had her birth certificate that states she was born in Illinios. Like the op said, you gotta love the fed gov.

[<M&M>]

Oh i forgot to mention that my birth certificate DOES have an error on it ( it lists me as my own father) but i guess thats ok....:confused:

[FitzLA]

Oh i forgot to mention that my birth certificate DOES have an error on it ( it lists me as my own father) but i guess thats ok....:confused:

 

How did you manage that one? :D :D :D

[smeyer418]

Oh i forgot to mention that my birth certificate DOES have an error on it ( it lists me as my own father) but i guess thats ok....:confused:

 

So you have two birth certs that are not ok...is this from the same town? I think they may return the birth certs after you clear it up....

[Kim225]

We have a family cruise scheduled for April 1 and everyone had received their passports several weeks ago with the exception of my aunt. Today she received a letter stating that the original filing date was missing from her birth certificate, so her passport could not be completed. This sounds like the same type of message that the op's wife received. I'm not sure if she is going to have time to get this resolved before we leave at the end of March, so I am guessing that she will have to get another copy of her birth certificate and take that. Does anyone have any experience on how long it takes to resolve this type of problem?

[cusyl]

I am guessing that she will have to get another copy of her birth certificate and take that. Does anyone have any experience on how long it takes to resolve this type of problem?

 

Advise her that the copy must have a raised seal on it to be valid.

[winncove]

My friend who's sailing w/us to Alaska in Sept. went to the courthouse for her raised seal certified BC. Found out her maiden name on the BC was wrong [1 extra letter]. This is for a woman over 70 y/o! Never been caught before. She'd pd for 2 for some reason and they did refund for one of the wrong ones. Told her she may have to hire a lawyer to have the courts change it. Tried to get new one from Atl for 6 wks. Guess they couldn't find a file no. Finally local Health Dept said they had mailed her one. Still wrong spelling. In the meantime the courthouse said they'd worked it out w/NO BC office w/her affadavits of birth date & name from 2 relatives. She may get that in a month! Don't talk to her about government agencies! LOL.

[MGoBlue2]

Oh i forgot to mention that my birth certificate DOES have an error on it ( it lists me as my own father) but i guess thats ok....:confused:

Kind of like that old Guy Lombardo song' date=' "I'm my own Grandpa":

 

[indent']Now many many years ago when I was twenty-three

I was married to a widow who was pretty as can be

This widow had a grown-up daughter who had hair of red

My father fell in love with her and soon they too were wed

 

Oh I'm my own grandpa

I'm my own granpa

It sounds funny I know,

But it really is so

Oh I'm my own grandpa

 

This made my dad my son-in-law and changed my very life

My daughter was my mother 'cause she was my father's wife

To complicate the matter even though it brought me joy

I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy

 

My little baby then became a brother-in-law to Dad

And so became my uncle, though it made me very sad

For if he was my uncle, then that also made him br'ther

Of the widow's grown-up daughter who was also my stepmother

 

Father's wife then had a son who kept them on the run

And he became my grandchild, for he was my daughter's son

My wife is now my mother's mother and it makes me blue

Because altho' she is my wife, she's my grandmother too

 

Now if my wife is my grandmother, then I'm her grandchild

And every time I think of it, it nearly drives me wild

For now I have become the strangest case I ever saw

As husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpa

[/indent]

[rjg41]

WARNING! The law has been delayed to Jan 1, 2007 for all air and sea travel NOT 2008.

 

While it still can be changed again, the current plan by the US State Department for US citizens is a passport will be required for ALL air and sea travel involving foreign countries after Dec. 31, 2006. The 2008 date is for all travel including land crossing into Mexico and Canada.

 

The following is direct from the US State Department Web site (http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2225.html) :

 

"When will the Travel Initiative be implemented?

 

In the proposed implementation plan, which is subject to a period of initial public comment, the Initiative will be rolled out in phases, providing as much advance notice as possible to the affected public to enable them to meet the terms of the new guidelines. The proposed timeline will be as follows:

 

December 31, 2006 – Requirement applied to all air and sea travel to or from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda.

December 31, 2007 – Requirement extended to all land border crossings as well as air and sea travel."

 

This is the latest.

[jbsteven]

Advise her that the copy must have a raised seal on it to be valid.

 

not true. I process passports and birth certificates for a living (15 years) and can tell you not all birth certificates have raised seals. They will either have a raised seal OR a watermark in the paper. The raised seal process has been around for a long time but the faster, more efficient watermark is being used by more states.

[Candleonwater]

That is SO true! I was in a panic when i received my daughters replacement BC as there was no raised seal... not a problem.

[wraithe]

God you have to love the federal govenment:rolleyes:

 

OK end rant:D

 

Yeah, that stupid federal government that messed up both you and your wife's birth certificate, you know, the ones issued by the county that you've apparently lived in your whole life. :confused:

[rgnok]

Back when we got passports for my two daughters (6 & 2), they both arrived on the same day, and both had errors . . .

 

Both expired in 10 years instead of 5.

 

One daughter was listed as male.

 

I had to send them both back for reprinting. Only real gripe was that we did just as directed, which included getting new pictures made for $16, but the reprinted passports used the original pictures and they returned the two sets of new pictures that we got, so we wasted that $16.

 

But, yeah . . . our government at work!

[Treven]

When I was getting ready to apply for my passport several years ago I was reading over the requirements about getting an "official" birth certificate from the county; guess if I provided them with a hospital birth certificate, I really wasn't "officially born".

Because I go by a different first name that is on my birth certificate (I haven't changed it through the courts) I had to show that I have been using this other name for at least the previous 5 years.

So, along with my application, birth certificate etc., I also sent in copies of my check stubs from work for the previous ten years, copy of my Social Security cards (my original one and the one with my new name on it) and various other items.

Yes, I work for the gov't.