Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Passport Delay

Since March, my passport has been in the safe keeping of the United States of America. Today I got an envelope marked "U.S. Government," and thought that it had finally gotten through the process. Not that I have any international travel on my schedule (hope springs eternal!), but it's good to keep a passport current. (Why, O why, did my passport have to expire the year the U.S. Government decided to add our neighbors to the "passports required" list?) Anyway, the envelope was just too...flexible to contain a passport.
Sure enough.
I have to fill out another form, and this time I have to SIGN the form with BOTH my legal name and my name as a religious. (Sometimes I end up with tickets or other significant documents in my religious name, so I have an "AKA"--"also known as"--on my passport.)
I filled out the form, but with some dread. I mean, you are supposed to submit your original passport with the form, but they kept my passport. Likewise, you are supposed to submit two 2X2 photos (face to be 1" to 1 3/8 inches only), but they kept the photos. With my luck, I'd get another flexible envelope from the "U.S. Government" telling me I could not have a passport because I did not submit my original... or two photos.
So I have spent most of the evening trying to work a hastily taken "alternate" photo into the acceptable format, and then print it out in the proper size at home, and trim it very carefully, so at least ... they will have my pictures (and Walgreens will not have $8 more of my congregation's hard-earned money!).

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Give it up, Girl! I'll send you the $8 for Walgreens...by the way, I just used my passport for an easy transfer from my Illinois Driver's License to a Georgia one. After surviving Louisiana and Illinois this was a most pleasant experience.
Now I am officially a peach of a deacon and a voting Georgian!
Your friend,
Deacon Fred

Anonymous said...

How ironic, a model citizen (albeit with an AKA), all tangled up in red tape over a passport.
Here's hoping that there is much international travel in your future, and that your passport pictures do you justice. It doesn't seem that you are getting it from any other milieu. spqr

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

For Vera. If you find absolutely free Playboy and Penthouse, you are monumentally overcharged and weird, and those are your good points. spqr

Anonymous said...

It really takes a stroke of genius for such a gracious person as Vera to infiltrate a nunblog with the contents of her beautiful mind. Let's pray for a speedy recovery of her stroke. Winifritz

Sister Anne said...

I'm sorry I didn't catch that sooner; we had DSL trouble yesterday.

Anonymous said...

Better late than never to wipe out obscenity. RIP

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I'm a Religion News Service reporter working on a story about passport delays, especially ones relating to mission trips.
I'd love to hear more about where you are in the process of getting it...
Could you e-mail me at michellerindels@yahoo.com ?
Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I also have problem with my AKA name.
Which form, mentioned in your post, should I use to have the AKA name shown on my passport?
Thanks.