Travel Tips

Passport Nightmare

Locations in this article:  New Orleans, LA

Passport

A few months ago, I arranged to take my newly retired parents to Merry Old England for a holiday.

The realization hit last week that they might not be joining me after all.

American citizens, they applied to renew their passports in early April, expecting that they would be receiving their new passports in the mail in eight to 10 weeks. No dice.

Last week, I logged on to the U.S. State Department Web site to track the status of their applications. The only information I could gather were locator numbers for their applications, which did absolutely no good. I emailed the government agency, which promised online that it would respond to my query within 48 hours. It’s been a week–no response.

I dialed the only Passport Agency customer service phone number in the country, went through various recordings and was ultimately disconnected. Determined to speak with a person, I arose at 5:30 a.m. this morning to go to the Federal Building in Westwood (one of only 13 regional Passport Agencies in the U.S.).

As it turns out, ever since new rules were implemented requiring U.S. citizens to have a passport to travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, the agency has been swamped with applications, and no additional manpower has been added to process the increased volume.

On the agency’s recording, it says they’re working overtime to handle the increased demand, and encouraged those who were two weeks from departure to make an in-person appointment. I tried unsuccessfully on several occasions. The recording indicated they are booked indefinitely. That’s when I figured I’d better go in person.

When I arrived at the Federal Building at the ungodly hour of 6:30 a.m., I was greeted by more than 200 people already standing in line outside. The lucky ones had appointments. Most of us didn’t.

A frequent overheard lament was that the automated phone service had informed them the same thing I already knew: All appointments had been booked for more than two weeks. Most of the people I overheard and talked to were scheduled to fly to their international destination in a day or two. One lady had been there Friday for several hours and gave up. She got there earlier this time and was second in the standby line. One guy had a nonrefundable plane ticket to leave that night.

Good luck, buddy.

I was standing between a young Japanese-American student, who had nonrefundable airline reservations for Japan the next day, and a woman whose teenage son had not received his passport (though the rest of the family had), and was leaving in two days. One little girl behind me had to go to the bathroom. Her mother cajoled her to wait. I wondered how long we would be in line, and whether anyone would get in.

With nothing better to do than wait and shiver in the morning fog, we desperate passport seekers shared our tales of woe with complete strangers. After all, no one from the Passport Agency seemed interested in informing us what was going on or whether we had a chance in heck of getting inside.

Even after they opened at 7 a.m., the line didn’t budge. The woman with the passport-less teenager passed the time trying the Passport Agency on her cell phone in an attempt to reach a live person. After an hour, she succeeded. The staffer informed her that her son’s passport was still at the New Orleans facility; it hadn’t been mailed yet.

At the end of her conversation, she begged the employee to listen to my predicament as well. I explained the situation but made the unfortunate mistake of telling the truth: the passports were for my parents. The person on the phone said that because of privacy issues, she could only tell me that the passports were being “processed.” At that point, I realized there was probably nothing I could do, even if I got to the front of the line. More people had joined the line. We looked like refugees from a third world country. It’s sad to think that it’s easier to get into the U.S. than out these days.

Miserable, I returned to my office, and wondered if I should cancel the trip, forfeiting $2,000 in plane tickets. My mother called to say she had visited her congressional representative’s office that morning and that someone there was going to try and expedite her and my dad’s passport applications. I too contacted my congressman, Henry Waxman, to see if his office could help.

When I called and explained that I had “a constituent problem,” the voice on the other end said, “Let me guess, you’re having a problem with your passport?” They listened sympathetically, took down my information and promised to get back to me in the next day or so. I’m starting to feel a little reassured that things will work out.

Here are some tips about traveling internationally …

Don’t make travel arrangements unless you already have a valid passport in hand. Pay the extra $60 on top of the basic $67 fee to get your passport application expedited. Better yet, save yourself some grief and stay home.

-Angela, Woodland Hills, CA

Got a question for Peter? Send an email to info@PeterGreenberg.com (please include “Ask Peter” in the subject line).

For more information on passports, check out “Getting Past the Passport Crunch”.