SFist: Passport Woes

guest

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:43:52 -0800

because of ALL the horror stories, i decided not to chance it. i tried to get an appt at the SF office via their automated phone system, but it drove me insance. i ended up using CIBT (passport expediting service), and they were amazing. my passport renewal turned around in less than 7 days...literally from when i sent it in to when i received it (they did it through the houston passport office). and if the stupid passport office didn't send back the paper work since i signed in red ink, it would have been even sooner. i'm leaving this sunday for kenya, and i received the passport yesterday. you pay for the service, but it was worth it when you're a procrastinating idiot like me.

mariconsoy

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:47:39 -0800

Mine expires in 2013. I think I'll try to renew next year or the year after. I'm afraid if I wait until 2012, they'll be issuing ones with micro GPS/DNA sample chips, along with a micro web cam chip so all citizens can be properly be protected from the terrorists.

guest

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:32:37 -0800

My non-expedited passport renewal had not come through after 13 weeks. Calling the State Dept. was useless as the earliest appointment they would give me was in 15 days, after I was leaving the country, and the three people I talked to gave me contradictory information. (They're swamped and probably putting everyone on the phones even though they don't have customer service training and don't know a thing about passports.) So, what worked for me: Calling Nancy Pelosi's office. Her office got me an appointment in 24 hours. They were awesome.

wsanders

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:15:51 -0800

I think they are making refunds of the expedition fee for all the slow "expedited" processing. You might check. I got a new one last winter, non-expedited, and it took about 5 weeks.

guest

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 08:28:29 -0800

I procrastinated too long and found myself paying for the expedited service. I went to the Sutter station last month early July and definately received my passport within 2 weeks. I was definately pleasantly surprised.

Deborah

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:29:22 -0800

The line was actually pretty short at Sutter Street. Why do all those people line up at the passport office on Hawthorne and Folsom, when the lines are so much shorter at the post office or City Hall, #3?

guest

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 06:20:31 -0800

Makfan: You can add pages to your passports at consulates overseas in about an hour.

guest

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:49:52 -0800

I second the suburbs. Go to the Daly City county offices. I received mine in a week after going there.

guest

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 19:27:35 -0800

"Our" passport? You guys SFist collectively share a passport? What up with that?

guest

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:41:36 -0800

c'est la vie.

redseca2

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:19:54 -0800

Guest 14 at 6:01: A friend of mine has a passport horror story, actually from 2006 before the rush, and it is all because of the nice ladies at city hall who gave him nice, but utterly, stupidly wrong information. His application turned into a 3 month anxiety attack starting when he applied in February that only ended when he got his passport 24 hours before we were to leave for Norway in May. Those nice ladies will help you with you federal income taxes if you give them a chance too.

guest

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 18:01:23 -0800

Many people don't know that you can apply for a passport at City Hall. Room 104, if I remember correctly, practically no line, very nice ladies help you out. Renewed my passport the other day and was in and out in just a few minutes.

makfan

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 17:19:07 -0800

@baldguy: Some years back, there were not thousands of backlogged applications due to a rule change. I applied for a renewal passport in 2001 and had it in a few weeks without expediting. I have heard many horror stories of passports taking two or three months. My passport is good until 2011, but I am almost out of blank pages, which can be a problem when attempting to enter certain countries. I may have to deal with the passport system to get extra pages added. I travel out of the US once every four to six weeks, so a huge delay is a problem.

guest

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:57:56 -0800

We applied for our daughter's passport in April. We had to go down to the passport office in July, to finally get it. We called Nancy Pelosi's office, who got us an appointment the next day. She has someone on staff full time to handle people with passport crisis.

baldguy

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:51:54 -0800

heh. Cut off. Moral of my story is the 'burbs = short wait time. Of course, mine was a standard application. No change-naming or anything. (Simmer down, there, Deb. Sheesh.)

shannon641

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:49:07 -0800

I applied for my passport in the beginning of May and had my trip to Japan planned for mid-June. They highly recommended I pay for expedited processing so I reluctantly shelled out the extra cash. I was really glad I did, though, because I got my passport in about 2 1/2 weeks.

baldguy

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:47:22 -0800

Tip for future passport-getters...the 'burbs. When I went to get mine some years back, I was working in Marin. I took my photo and form to the post office in Corte Madera, waited

SFist_Dan

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:47:18 -0800

A little tip - if you're really caught and you're leaving in the next two weeks, make an appointment with the passport office on Folsom Street near First (phone number is on the State Dept website - just look for the San Francisco Passport Agency). You have to bring proof that you have an international flight within two weeks (an itinerary or ticket), and all of the passport paperwork. But, it'll get done in less than two weeks. The system is badly backed up, and will remain so through next year, when they're planning on instituting passport requirements for ground travel to Mexico/Canada.

guest

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:45:48 -0800

Deborah, if you're going to be so angry when someone questions your putting off a passport application, why don't you put the "I changed my name" actually in the story? You don't really think your life is so important that everyone is going to breathlessly click every link in this story to get the full scoop on something as mundane (and well known)as the ridiculously slow wait times for a passport, do you?

Jon

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:38:15 -0800

I paid $200 to get my passport expedited and got mine in about two weeks after reapplying for one. But what I really want to know is why I am being told that I need one when I am only going to Alaska. Non-stop. What up with that?

Deborah

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:31:37 -0800

Guest, #2, I changed my name.

RinconHillSF

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:28:18 -0800

Renewed mine in December ... good til 2016. :)

guest

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:21:50 -0800

You did the right thing by paying for expedited service and going through the post office. I work right near the actual Passport office on Folsom and Hawthorne, and there have been block-long lines almost every day this summer. Sometimes there are two lines one up Folsom and one down Hawthorne. And the lines don't move. I go out at lunch time and see the same poor souls that were there in the morning. The Chron did an article a while back on why the passport agency is so backed-up Summer.

guest

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:21:23 -0800

Why did you wait this long to get your passport in the first place? Why didn't you get passport, oh, say, five years ago? Ten years ago?

guest

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:20:23 -0800

One of the Balkinization guys told this story: http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/06/travelers-beware-caught-in-bureaucratic.html