Sorry guys, I've run out of time and people to ask so I've decided to ask my question here on the baseball forums . Now let's cut to the chase. My mom, brother, and I are scheduled to fly to Peru this Thursday. My dad is already there - he went early. Now, we haven't received our passports through the mail, so as long as we don't have them, we will be unable to make this trip. We went to the post office about 13-14 weeks ago, and the passport agency states that you should have the passports within 10 weeks. Well, this is not the case. My mom called today (after 5 hours of being put on hold, etc.) and she talked to a person who said that our passports were still in circulation and pretty much, they have just been sitting in a building for 13 weeks doing nothing. The person said that the only way we could get our passports before Thursday is if we drive to a regional center - Wash DC or New York City (btw I live in upstate NY). The person didn't say anymore, just that if we visited one of the centers, we would get the passports on the same day. Now this poses some problems. First, I don't know if we need to schedule appointments or what not, or if we can just walk right in and get them. Secondly, my brother has school exams monday and tuesday, and I have exams tuesday and wednesday. And to top it off, my relatives from Canada are coming down late late Monday night to watch the house while we're gone. My mom is freaking out, the house isn't clean, and if all of this doesn't pan out, we will be losing major cash from air fares, tickets, bookings for Machu Picchu, etc. I can't even explain how much this sucks. And the reason why we don't have our passports now is because the government implemented a policy which states that everyone going to Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean has to have a passport. Actually I'm not so sure about this because I can't remember everything my mom said, but basically, there is an overflow of demands, and the government didn't hire enough people to deal with all these passport requests, and the process is really screwed up. So, I know you guys will most likely not be able to help, but do you have any suggestions, or have you, by some crazy chance, been in this situation before? If I actually get on a plane, it will be a miracle...
The new law didn't do anything to affect your trip except that it forced many others to have to get their passports to get into Canada/Mexico by air. They do state that if you have not received your passport two weeks before you are scheduled to leave that you are supposed to call. One week before may be too late which is why you have to go to NY. I'd call and find out two things: 1. Do you need an appointment? 2. Can one of you pick up everybodys passports since you are immediate family? I'd call the center directly and find those two out before you leave. If you're lucky, one of you can go, walk in, and have everybody's passport in time. You may have waited too close to your trip to call unfortunately. I hope everything works out for you guys.
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Sounds like you've already got enough invested that it would be worth a trip to the big city if you're already in NY. But before you make the trip, call again and talk to a supervisor or someone in a position of accountability (oxymoron when speaking of the gov't, I know). Get it in writing if at all possible that someone will be able to assist you when you get there. Even if they say you don't need an appointment, try to get one anyway. You might be able to get someone from your congressman's office to go to bat for you too.
I could have sworn I heard on the news a few days ago that they've relaxed the passport rule for travel to Canada, Mexico, The Caribbean and South America due to the backlog and that a valid drivers license will be accepted.
You might want to ask about that. Maybe a travel agent can tell what the most up to date rules are. Good luck.
I just recently had to get a passport too as I'm going to Europe this summer, because of the huge backlog it takes like 8 weeks by the regular way...the other ways i've heard of are what the woman told you and doing it through a 3rd party company...so many people are trying to get passports that i would suggest trying to make an appointment as soon as possible, its a 24 hour automated appointment service...when i tried to make an appt at the san francisco office i couldnt even get through, the line was busy all the time...i ended up paying extra using http://www.americanpassport.com who have some way of getting it through faster, but it cost me $200 to get 3 day service. I'm pretty sure those are you're only two options for now, try calling immediately to get an appt at the new york office, thats probably you're best bet for getting the passport on time
Thanks for the help guys. Incidentally, I was surfing the net and I came across a complaint board for passports. After reading pretty much every post, I came across a number, showed it to my mom, had her call, and we got our passports today at 2pm, just in time to make our flight tomorrow at noon! We were thinking that the only way to obtain the passports would be to drive to a regional center and camp out all day, but this number really saved our lives. If anyone needs it or wants the number, pm me.
DC nats05 wrote:Thanks for the help guys. Incidentally, I was surfing the net and I came across a complaint board for passports. After reading pretty much every post, I came across a number, showed it to my mom, had her call, and we got our passports today at 2pm, just in time to make our flight tomorrow at noon! We were thinking that the only way to obtain the passports would be to drive to a regional center and camp out all day, but this number really saved our lives. If anyone needs it or wants the number, pm me.
Glad it worked out for you. Have a great trip.
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DC nats05 wrote:Thanks for the help guys. Incidentally, I was surfing the net and I came across a complaint board for passports. After reading pretty much every post, I came across a number, showed it to my mom, had her call, and we got our passports today at 2pm, just in time to make our flight tomorrow at noon! We were thinking that the only way to obtain the passports would be to drive to a regional center and camp out all day, but this number really saved our lives. If anyone needs it or wants the number, pm me.
Congratulations! Enjoy your trip!
And there had better be Machu Picchu pictures here when you get back!
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by DC nats05 » Sat Jun 16, 2007 11:18 pm 
. Now let's cut to the chase. My mom, brother, and I are scheduled to fly to Peru this Thursday. My dad is already there - he went early. Now, we haven't received our passports through the mail, so as long as we don't have them, we will be unable to make this trip. We went to the post office about 13-14 weeks ago, and the passport agency states that you should have the passports within 10 weeks. Well, this is not the case. My mom called today (after 5 hours of being put on hold, etc.) and she talked to a person who said that our passports were still in circulation and pretty much, they have just been sitting in a building for 13 weeks doing nothing. The person said that the only way we could get our passports before Thursday is if we drive to a regional center - Wash DC or New York City (btw I live in upstate NY). The person didn't say anymore, just that if we visited one of the centers, we would get the passports on the same day. Now this poses some problems. First, I don't know if we need to schedule appointments or what not, or if we can just walk right in and get them. Secondly, my brother has school exams monday and tuesday, and I have exams tuesday and wednesday. And to top it off, my relatives from Canada are coming down late late Monday night to watch the house while we're gone. My mom is freaking out, the house isn't clean, and if all of this doesn't pan out, we will be losing major cash from air fares, tickets, bookings for Machu Picchu, etc. I can't even explain how much this sucks. And the reason why we don't have our passports now is because the government implemented a policy which states that everyone going to Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean has to have a passport. Actually I'm not so sure about this because I can't remember everything my mom said, but basically, there is an overflow of demands, and the government didn't hire enough people to deal with all these passport requests, and the process is really screwed up. So, I know you guys will most likely not be able to help, but do you have any suggestions, or have you, by some crazy chance, been in this situation before? If I actually get on a plane, it will be a miracle...
