Maybe if I sacrifice a goat you can help me

[Soulstealer]

So I'm interning at a congressman's office for the summer when I'm not working for actual money. One responsibility we have lately is to help constituents check on their passport status and expedite it if needed. Now the people who call in for the most part did what they're supposed to do, filed the right papers in the right amount of time. Unfortunatly, homeland security has made up new regulations recently adding more tape and applications. Whoever decided this policy apperantly did not have the foresight to realize more applications and hassle will require more employees if you want to get the passports processed in time.

The phone number we use to check up on passport status supposedly makes the wait time shorter and if everyone wasn't trying to check up for their constituents it would be. I've gotten a busy signal, a very long wait time, and when I finally did get to someone 9 times out of 10 it would not be likely for them to help in time. So I'm stuck calling up these poor people who did what they're supposed to do and telling them the only option left is for them to waste a day driving to they passport agency in (city). Maybe if I ask Satan he'll have a personal line to the idiots who make up these policies. He probably can't get help from them either.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Why do these services always have ONE office in a town 45 minutes away? When I lost my wallet and had to get a new social security card, I had to drive all the way to Town to turn in the paperwork and show my ID which takes all of 10 minutes. My other option was to mail it to them...um, can't exactly mail you my driver's license and my original birth certificate and wait weeks for you to send them back...

sorry, small rant over

[Boozy]

My sister went to renew her Health Card (government issued health insurance card) and stood in line for an hour. She reached the front of the line, her ankles swollen from supporting her and her unborn child, only to be told by the woman at the desk:

"Great! Here's your [totally pointless piece of paper indicating you are alive or some such thing]. There's the line for the actual renewal. Its moving along quickly today, should only be another two hour wait or so."



Just another one for the Insane Bureaucracy From Hell File.

[Reyneth]

I feel you on the passport issues. The current situation is insane and should have been forseen. I feel bad for people coming in to my store to get photos done and always try and warn them about the current processing time so they have advance knowledge when going to the Post Office or other processing place.

And now that word is getting out, there are people coming in now for fall or winter vacations (not that I blame them!), putting even *more* stress on the overloaded systems. I feel bad for anyone dealing with any aspect of this mess - except the government agencies who couldn't be bothered to hire more people to process all of the Passports that they are requiring!

[zzapp the witch]

Papers, please, comrade.

Every time I see the phrase "Homeland Security" I think of....well, you all know where I'm going with this.

[hawkchick11]

I've been hearing about the wait times for passports and stuff, it sounds insane.

I'm still trying to figure out how my cousin went to the Passport office in Chicago last week and walked out with her passport. You would think it would take longer than a few hours to get it.

[Broomjockey]

Wow, I'm glad that I didn't have to deal with stuff like that getting my passport this year. My two biggest issues were getting a specific form that can only be gotten at one office in the city, and then standing in line the day I finally got my passport forms filled out, since I had to go to the official passport Canada office because of that stupid form. One 2.5 hour wait in one line for them to tell me whether I filled everything out completely or not, then another 2 hour wait to actually get to go up, give them the forms, photos, and pay. I did get it a week faster than they said I would though.

[jb17kx]

I have one phrase that I live by in this regard:

10 year passports.

[Banrion]

We do have 10 year passports here in the US, however, there is a major surge in new passport applications because it is now required to get to the US territories, Bermuda, US Virgin Islands, Mexico, Canada, and while Puerto Rico is not covered under the law, many airlines are still requiring it. Before this year, you only needed to prove citizenship with a birth certificate to get to these places, now that a passport is required there is an immense overload to the system. When the law was passed, congress didn't think ahead enough to hire and train more people in the passport offices, and now it's too late as it takes approx 9 months to get someone trained to a proficiency where they can work alone without someone double checking their work. I ride the train with quite a few people from the Boston passport office, and they are working dead out to get these things processed, there are just too many. Right now they are required to do a minimum of 12 hours a week in OVERTIME!! That's right 52 hour weeks for everyone. Most are working 6 9 hour days a week. Please just remember, it is not the frontline at the passport office, or even the person answering the phone. It is the congress who passed a law without giving the passport agency the means to hire and train more staff.

[Reyneth]

And there's going to be another surge next year also - but not nearly as large. The Mexico/Canada regulations are only for flying or cruise ships in 2007 but in 2008 will also extend to driving. So the people who have decided to wait until after this rush has passed plus the normal summer tourist season means that next spring, history will repeat itself. Unless they start hiring NOW.

If people at a photo store could see the issues this would raise, why couldn't the government?
Oh, right.

[MadMike]

If people at a photo store could see the issues this would raise, why couldn't the government?
Oh, right.

For some reason, the whole situation reminds me of the Gallagher quote I used for my sig awhile back:

"If Con is the opposite of Pro, then Congress must be the opposite of Progress."

[Soulstealer]

"If Con is the opposite of Pro, then Congress must be the opposite of Progress."[/QUOTE]


It's not just congress, they make up the legislation but the bureacracy is the one that actually interprets it. The chances of making a sensible system is

[Cia]

When I applied for my passport a couple of years ago I was warned that they require the California long form birth certificate. Well I only had the photostat copy that my parents received when Mom moved us to SD when Dad was going back out to sea. Hey it had an official seal on it, so it wasn't a raised seal but it was a seal. I used my photostat copy anyways and sent everything off.

Just in case I also ordered a long form copy after I figured out what county I was born in, how much it was and where to send the request. Hell I never even lived in my birthplace, Placerville, my Grandparents lived in Grizzly Flats but there wasn't a hospital there aaaaaand we were only in Grizzly Flats for 2 weeks before moving to San Diego. So $35 later I had that stupid Cali long form. And the only difference between the L/F and my photostat? It listed my parent's occupations and home address. Geez $35 for that! What a waste of money.

Guess what? In the end I didn't even need the long form - the passport people accepted my photostat copy and issued the passport.

4 kids, three states, four towns - Go Navy!

[Andara Bledin]

You can get your certificate directly from the state of California for only $14.

Of course, if you don't want to go into an office somewhere, you also have to get a form notarized, and that would cost, too.

I have never had a birth certificate. Or a passport. One of these years I should get them both.

^-.-^

[Becks]

I read this morning that the government is thinking of scaling down on their requirements a bit. Anyone know the truth on that? Apparently, they're going to allow receipts of sending for a passport to serve as proof.

(Does what I wrote make sense?)