Travel Documents

[Guest zipperzone]

Today's New York Times has an article about the delays people are experiencing in obtaining passports - a document that is now required for all Americans returning to their own country.

 

It stated that an estimated 14 million passports will be issued in 2007. The fee for a passport is currently $97.00.

 

Do the math..... if I'm not mistaken they will rake in One Billion, Three Hundred and Fifty Eight Million Dollars, at this rate.

 

This figure does not take into account an additional fee of $60.00 for "expidited" service. There was no estimate given as to how many applicants would pay this extra fee.

 

Wouldn't you think that for $1,358,000,000 they could afford to hire a couple more clerks?

[seaboy4hire]

I don't have a passport but have always wondered what the process is for filling out the document. Background checks, residence employment, income etc?

 

Hugs,

Greg

[email protected]

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[Guest RandyRon]

>I don't have a passport but have always wondered what the

>process is for filling out the document. Background checks,

>residence employment, income etc?

>

>Hugs,

>Greg

>

 

It's been a while (like 40 years) since I got my first passport but the only documents I remember having to submit were a copy of my birth certificate and driver's license to prove my address. Once you have the initial passport, it's even easier to renew it. I have always gone directly to the passport office in Chicago and the wait time has been rather short before I got it in the mail.

[doctordoctor]

Sent in a passport renewal on March 8....haven't yet gotten it back.....anybody know if this is a normal time for it to get back to me?....is it that they are just very busy?

[Karl-G]

Passport

 

All information for obtaining a passport for the first time or renewing a passport are on-line at

 

http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html

 

For a first time passport, the total fee is $97 and the passport is good for ten years. The fee for renewal of a passport is $67 and is good again for ten years. These days, it makes sense for everyone to possess a valid passport; travel is ubiquitous for Americans. Planning ahead will save money and worry. Don't wait until the last moment.

 

But if you are rushed (at least to renew a passport), you can request expedited service and pay $60 extra. Mine came in ten days with no problems. It is no big deal.

[+ purplekow]

RE: Passport

 

Last year at this time I needed to get an expedited passport. I went to my local passport office in NJ and was told they only did regular passport applications and that I would have to go to a major center, NY or Philadelphia. You need to be travelling within the next two weeks. You need to have the tickets. You need at least two forms of identification.

 

At any rate, I got the information together and decided to call the Connecticut office in Stanford. As it turns out they were able to do same day passports, you need to make an appointment and you can get your passport the same day . I made the automated appointment for three days later, got to the office at 11:30 and was off the line by 11:45. I returned as instructed at 3:00 and was on my way by 3:05. While there I met a young man on line and we had lunch together. He told me that he had been to the NYC office and that his appointment was for 10AM and he waited until 7PM for his name to be called and then he was dismissed and told to come back the next day. He had not even made the first contact.

 

Point being, different offices can do different kinds of passports.

Not all offices can do emergency or expedited passports.

Smaller offices which may be out of the way, may be worth the extra drive.

And judging by my lunch companion, you can definitely pick up a hot guy at the passport office.

[Guest]

>Today's New York Times has an article about the delays people

>are experiencing in obtaining passports - a document that is

>now required for all Americans returning to their own

>country.

>

>It stated that an estimated 14 million passports will be

>issued in 2007. The fee for a passport is currently $97.00.

>

>Do the math..... if I'm not mistaken they will rake in One

>Billion, Three Hundred and Fifty Eight Million Dollars, at

>this rate.

>

>This figure does not take into account an additional fee of

>$60.00 for "expidited" service. There was no estimate given as

>to how many applicants would pay this extra fee.

>

>Wouldn't you think that for $1,358,000,000 they could afford

>to hire a couple more clerks?

 

I agree that it's a total rip-off. But if you think that's bad, things are even worse for my partner, who's a asylee from the Russian Federation. For his $400 fee to adjust his status from asylee to permanent resident, they expect it to take two years to get his green card (no expedited service available)!! What's worse is that until he's eligible for a U.S. Passport, he has to pay $170 EACH YEAR for a refugee travel document (they take about four months to process, with a validity period of 12 months). They look pretty much like U.S. Passports with an eagle on the front, but they say "Travel Document" instead of "Passport" on the front, and on the second page it says "This is NOT a United States Passport."

[Guest]

It wouldn't hurt to complain to your Representative, or, if you come from a small state, your U.S. Senator (how I'd love to come from a state where my Senator might actually be slightly interested in his constituents' opinions). I'm seriously thinking of complaining to my U.S. Representative about the ridiculous delays through BCIS.

[seaboy4hire]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070608/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_passports;_ylt=AohWCFCHbVxzuPeKRXDuMP6s0NUE

 

 

 

By MATTHEW LEE and DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writers 2 hours, 1 minute ago

 

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is poised to suspend a major post-9/11 security initiative to cope with increasingly angry complaints from Americans whose summer vacations are threatened by new passport rules.

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A proposal, expected to be announced Friday, will temporarily waive a requirement that U.S. citizens have passports to fly to and from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, provided the traveler can prove he or she has already applied for a passport, officials said Thursday.

 

The temporary lifting of the passport rule is aimed at clearing a massive backlog of passport applications at the State Department that has slowed processing to a crawl, they said. Rep. Heather Wilson (news, bio, voting record), R-N.M., said the suspension would last until the end of September.

 

The plan had run into opposition from the

Homeland Security Department, which controls U.S. border points and fears the move could make it easier for terrorists or other undesirables to enter the country, the officials said.

 

Instead of a passport, travelers will now be able to present a State Department receipt showing their passport application is being processed, and a government-issued ID such as a driver's license.

 

Homeland Security signed off on the proposal on Thursday after consultations with the State Department, the White House and members of Congress, who have been deluged with complaints from furious constituents, according to four officials at the agencies involved.

 

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision has not yet been announced.

 

A Homeland Security spokesman declined to comment.

 

Under the plan, those without passports would receive additional security scrutiny when they travel, which could include extra questioning or bag checks, according to one official familiar with the discussions.

 

The suspension will give the State Department time to deal with a surge in applications that has overwhelmed its processing centers since the new rules took effect earlier this year.

 

The backlog has caused up to three-month delays in issuing passports and ruined or delayed the travel plans of untold thousands of Americans.

 

Frustrated lawmakers besieged with constituent complaints have demanded relief.

 

Rep. Thomas Reynolds (news, bio, voting record), R-N.Y., whose district lies near the Canadian border, said White House officials have been on Capitol Hill trying to work out a compromise amid what he called a turf war between State and Homeland Security.

 

"White House personnel have seen the problem and they've been on Capitol Hill working with members," said Reynolds. "I expect a plan to be forthcoming that ... would not require a passport as long as you had an application receipt for filing for the passport."

 

The State Department has hired hundreds of new passport adjudicators, put employees to work around the clock and opened a new processing facility in Arkansas but has still been unable to meet the demand.

 

Initial hopes that the delays could be overcome were dashed this month when more than a million requests for new passports were dumped at once on the facilities by banks contracted to clear application fee checks, a senior State Department official said.

 

The passport application surge is the result of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative that since January has required U.S. citizens to use passports when entering the United States from Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean by air.

 

The travel initiative, which next year will require either passports or yet-to-be developed wallet-sized passcards to be presented at land border crossings, is part of a broader package of immigration rules enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

 

It has caused deep annoyance, particularly from those who live in border states and make routine, legal crossings into Canada and Mexico for business and pleasure.

 

Wilson, whose state is on the Mexican border, said she had been calling on State and Homeland Security to implement a suspension for two weeks.

 

"I said, 'You need to take action. This is completely screwed up'," she said. "To say people must have a passport to travel and not give people a passport is right up there in the stupid column."

 

Wilson said her office took more than 500 calls in May alone from constituents struggling to get passports and the problem has spread from border states to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kansas and Colorado.

 

Between March and May of this year, the department issued more than 4.5 million passports, a 60 percent increase over the same period in 2006, but millions more applications are waiting to be processed, according to consular affairs officials.

 

The demand is such that the State Department has warned applicants to allow as long as 12 weeks for their passports to be issued and up to three weeks for expedited processing at an extra fee. Previously, the maximum wait was six weeks and two weeks, respectively.

 

In the meantime, would-be foreign travelers stew and fret.

 

Angela Pezzimenti, a recent college graduate from Allegany, N.Y., barely got her passport in time to make a trip to Europe last month.

 

"It was nerve-racking," said the 21-year-old, who finally received her passport three days before the trip. "I was really afraid that it wasn't going to come in time. We had everything planned, our tickets were bought, and I was pretty worried."

 

Wendy Berry of Franklin, W.Va., applied in March for a passport for her 18-year-old son, Jonathan. But the day he was to leave to visit his sister in Peru, his passport hadn't come.

 

"There are two things I wish they would do," she said of the government. "The only really responsible party is the Passport Office. I wish they would be held accountable. And I wish they would staff more people. The whole system is ready to collapse."

 

___

 

 

Hugs,

Greg

Associated Press writer Jennifer Talhelm contributed to this report.

[email protected]

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[+ Oliver]

I must live right. }( Sent my renewal in May 30 by certified mail and received it by priority mail today - it was issued June 6. Admittedly I used expedited service, but that is less time than the projected 2 or 3 weeks. Now I'm really set for a trip to Mexico with SK. :9