Dont forget to check your passports

edited October 2013 in JoCo Cruise
I pulled ours out last night to make sure all was well and realized mine expires in Nov 2013.

No problemo, right? 4 months, that should be enough for a new passpor..................

Wait. the US govt is currently closed for business. rutroh. 

Has anyone gotten their passport renewed and how long did it take when the govt was open?

Comments

  • I got mine renewed about a year ago, and it took 4 weeks.
  • Mine expires in Feb. Thankfully the Canadian govt is still functional. Good tip though, especially for foreign travellers - the US requires that some countries have 6 months remaining on their passport (e.g. British passports). I found that out the hard way!
  • The US passport agencies are not closed, actually. They're self-funded by the fees. :)
  • :) And even quicker if I walk into Denver's passport agency! We originally got Kiddo's passport within 2 days that way.
  • edited October 2013
    The US Department of State is not exactly a model of efficiency, especially when it comes to passports. The most important thing is to submit a photo that meets their specs, so the whole application is not sent back to you.
  • When I renewed my New Zealand passport a few months ago, I did it all online and not have to send a single thing by snail mail. I got it by courier within a few weeks IIRC. Technology! :)

    On the other hand, I also have to renew my UK passport (thank you Mum, for doing an Englishman) which expires in December, and they require me to send in all other valid passports I'm included on (they'll send them back) and I don't really have any other photo ID, so I'm a bit nervous about that, but I haven't needed any ID recently despite having travelled between countries multiple times, so it'll probably be okay. I don't know, though; maybe I should wait until after the cruise, since apparently renewing a passport that has already expired is not actually difficult.

    Well that was all pretty irrelevant. Here's something useful: Non-US people, don't forget to check if you need ESTA. It's pretty much instantaneous (well, maybe it isn't if the government is shut down, so don't leave it till the last day, just in case) and costs $14 or so and lasts for two years (unless of course you renew the passport that you have it on.) Also, make sure whatever documents you need to go back home afterwards are in order. (When I wrote that, I was thinking about the time I was briefly stopped after the first cruise because my Swiss permit had expired, but then I remembered the sea monkey couple which has been trapped in two separate countries since the last cruise, which is much more serious.) So in summary, make sure you can get into the country and back out again.
  • US gov is back on.
  • Not that you OUGHT to rely on this but...

    In a pinch, if you live near a US city with a passport office you can actually get a passport as quickly as same-day or next-business-day - you just have to bring your picture, fill out the forms correctly in advance and show up to stand in line before the office opens. They will never officially TELL you this to be the case - the phone tree and all documentation on the state department web site will outright lie to you about it and insist the only way to get an appointment is via the voicemail system weeks in advance and the better way is to use the mail months in advance - but it remains true. If you need a passport within a week so you pay a courier firm for rush delivery that's all they do - have a guy stand in the right line at the right time of day.

    (I used the "go stand in line" system to renew my passport in 2011 and got a next-day pickup)
  • Don't rely on my story either, but when I renewed mine 6 years ago, I completed and submitted the paperwork on a Wednesday and the following Tuesday I had something in the mail from the State Department. OH GREAT, I thought, I screwed something up. Nope. New passport. 4 business days. No expedition, no special circumstances. YMMV, but I was super impressed. They tend to get them done much faster than 4 weeks, especially for renewals, and even better if you have the expired one.
  • Just got mine in the mail today.  Now legally allowed to leave the country... bwahahahaha!  ^_~

    It took about two weeks for mine, not bad at all.
  • I got mine renewed in about 3 weeks, FWIW, while the State Dept. website was suggesting 4-6 week turnaround times. Granted, this was before there was a 2-week-plus backlog due to the shutdown, but I got everything (passport and passport card) back including my hole-punched old one.

    Congressional pork for you: Passport card came first. Passport came in a separate mailing. Old passport came in a 3rd mailing. Each came from a separate location. Reason: congresscritters who used influence to arrange the different facilities in their districts.
  • Huh, weird! Now that you mention it, I think my old passport DID come later (punched full of holes.)

  • My husband just renewed this month and the turn around was stated to be 4-6 weeks, but he got it back in 2!  so if you need to get it done, go for it, and soon!
Sign In or Register to comment.