Drama at the passport office

[greensinestro]

This weekend my family and I all applied for passports being at least once a year, we travel on a cruise ship. They only will take you by appointment, and we made it two weeks prior. When we got there, already there were two guys hanging around, waiting for the door to open. The moment the door opened, the lady behind the counter called our names, but this one man rushed ahead, beating us. The exchange was rather heated.

This man was arguing because he had a 930am appointment (they open at 10am on Saturdays) and he had better get assistance before anyone else. This lady was so gruff with this man, and ripped open her appointment book to show this man's appointment was for the day before. "Sir, yesterday was yesterday, not today, so we cannot help you. You need to make an appointment!"

After this man left, the other man barged ahead of us while we were being helped, asking all kinds of questions. The lady helping us said, "Sir, I am busy right now. You need to read the signs outside and it tells you everything you need to know!" After he left, she said to us, "Those people make me sick. They don't speak English and he's probably here to get his twelve children passports so they could live here illegally!" I couldn't believe that. I mean, we don't look Spanish, but other people I know who don't look it certainly are it. Now, she was not rude to us in general, but she could have offended someone else acting like this.

By the way, passports take nearly three months to receive. You can thank those terrorists out there for that.

[ditchdj]

By the way, passports take nearly three months to receive. You can thank those terrorists out there for that.

Heh. You really think that requiring passports just to cross into Wisconsin is really gonna stop someone from blowing somebody up if they really wanted to do it bad enough??? If that's the case then how come DUI checkpoints has NOT stopped drunken driving???

[auntiem]

Actually, I blame the US government for requiring something knowing full well they don't have the staff to process all the passports required. They've been hauling people in off retirement and still don't have enough people.
The first guy - seriously, the passport office who has power over your passport approval you are going to be anything but polite to?!
As for what she said to the second guy - WTF! If the kids were born in the US they are US citizens and can get passports. Most of my Mexican clients though, go get Mexican passports for themselves and their kids (the kids can decide later to accept US citizenship - I don't remember what age they need to do it by) and they get their passports in one day if they go to the local consulate so why would they even bother with a US one?

Oh and kudos to you and your family for getting passports for cruises even though they aren't required yet (and I'm betting they push the deadline back).

[Kiwi]

I think what the passport officer said was disgraceful and offensive.

[Jack7957]

Actually, I blame the US government for requiring something knowing full well they don't have the staff to process all the passports required. They've been hauling people in off retirement and still don't have enough people.

It's been known since 2004 about the new requirements. It's only the people that waited till the last minute that are causing the backlog. I applied for mine (first time, not a renewal) late September last year and had it by late October, just 4 weeks.

[powerboy]

She could have keep that to herself.

[Soulstealer]

By the way, passports take nearly three months to receive. You can thank those terrorists out there for that.

Alright I'm calm. I have a bunch of angry constiuents saying you'd be very lucky if it was under 3 months, and I mean you sacrificed a goat or someone's first born lucky.
I feel some sympathy for the two men, while they were rude the red tape people have had to go through and the missed trips because of it is a pain to deal with and I only get a few from the amount which the passport people get.
On the topic of the passport lady, she's a bitch. I understand the regulations have been frustrating but I know personally that we've had to send quite a lot of legal citizens, who have probably been born in the U.S. to Chicago to straighten their passports out.
The problem isn't really the new regulations themselves so much as dear Homeland Security 'forgot' (read: has idiotic planning skills) to hire more people to work on the passports and they're still using the New Orleans facility, last I heard it wasn't back to pre-Katrina status. It's fine but not as good as the other ones right now. Let's not forget how they recently tried making people who were going to Mexico and Canada to get a passport without more hiring.

[tollbaby]

Geez, I feel sorry for you guys. I went in person to apply for my passport (if you do it by mail, it takes about a month to get your stuff back, if you go in person, they photocopy your ID, give it right back to you, and your passport is ready in 10 business days). I didn't wait in line, since I had completed my application online (that way they can just scan the barcode on the paper copy I bring in, and my whole app pops up on their screen). Total process took about 10 minutes, and I got my passport a week later.

This was BEFORE the "deadline" of Jan 1, 2007. (and yes, the "deadline" was real. they didn't push it back, at least on our side of the border).

[Soulstealer]

Geez, I feel sorry for you guys. I went in person to apply for my passport (if you do it by mail, it takes about a month to get your stuff back, if you go in person, they photocopy your ID, give it right back to you, and your passport is ready in 10 business days). I didn't wait in line, since I had completed my application online (that way they can just scan the barcode on the paper copy I bring in, and my whole app pops up on their screen). Total process took about 10 minutes, and I got my passport a week later.

That's the great thing about not being an American citizen yet. I just have to send some paperwork to the nearest embassy and it comes back in a timely fashion. Come to think of it when my father was naturalized his passport came in the mail a few weeks later, pretty quickly too.

[protege]

I've always said...if you want to royally screw something up, get our government involved. They *invented* paperwork and bureaucracy

[Gurndigarn]

I've always said...if you want to royally screw something up, get our government involved. They *invented* paperwork and bureaucracy

First part, frequently true. Second part, not true. Paperwork and bureaucracy have existed for millenia. Though there was less paperwork back before general public literacy, and definitely before wood-pulp paper... but bureaucracy is eternal.

[FuzzyKitten99]

It's been known since 2004 about the new requirements. It's only the people that waited till the last minute that are causing the backlog. I applied for mine (first time, not a renewal) late September last year and had it by late October, just 4 weeks.

Agreed. It all comes down to the saying: "Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."

[JustADude]

I've always said...if you want to royally screw something up, get our government involved. They *invented* paperwork and bureaucracy

Actually, the German government, which I've been told is probably one of the most bureaucratically intense in the world, is also supposedly one of the most streamlined. The key is having a sufficient amount of well trained staff and forms and regulations designed so that they can be comprehended by the average person without having to spend hours studying them.

[AriRashkae]

First: Bureaucrats cut red tape..... lengthwise.

Second, side note: Why, instead of trying to push a separate nation ID (to protekt us from dem terrists!) can't we just mandate passports? Yes, I know it will require more trained staff, etc, etc, but it sure beats creating a new system from the ground up. The passport is already a national ID. IIRC, it's the only single piece of ID you need to apply for a job, open an account, etc! Use anything else and you need at least 2!

[/rant]

[Max]

There has been paperwork since before there was paper! Archeologists have found all kinds of preserved records on stone, clay and papyrus. I remember reading about a finding that consisted of nothing but paperwork by the Egyptian government's head lawyer or something. Can you imagine being an archeologist on that dig?

This is amazing! We've found mountains of records!! This could be long lost religious or mythological texts! Or ancient astronomical theories! Or a new Rosetta Stone! What does it say, Johnson?!

Uh, actually sir, it says "Government owes Bob 1700 goats, 56800 yields of barley, 900 calves..."

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