US has a passport problem

I paid off my car and sent the signed title in to be re-issued. Hopefully it will return before I want to sell the car in a few years. In the before times typically my DMV trips here in Oregon took 15 minutes.

In the pre COVID times I moved from Nevada back to California, did all my drivers license paperwork, they punched my old license and the new California one showed up on time. A couple years later my auto insurance called me and told me my license was expired, the Nevada one, I double checked and made sure they had the California license. They did, it was expired too. Call DMV and they tell me that they cancelled my CA license since I had a Nevada license... that they punched a hole in. As usual no appointments for months so I show up in person and apparently got the "oops, we screwed up" ticket number because I was out of there way faster than the line would have indicated.
 
I remember having some fun with DMV in California back in 1983. I had just renewed my license in 1979, then moved to Colorado. Colorado punched a hole in the California license and issued me a Colorado license. 4 years later we moved back to California. They commented that my license had just expired a few months earlier, but I showed them the Colorado one as explanation. No problem and I got the new California license with the same number as I had had 4 years earlier. Sometimes things work out.
 
Last week I finally got an appointment for my renewal interview in February. Took a year to get the appointment after they covid-cancelled the first one.

Wrote my senators and representatives about it. Told them I love the concept but CBP needs slapped around until they fix the process. Crickets, which is not a surprise from these congress-critters I'm stuck with.
 
I had been holding on to mine for when expedite came back. I overnighted it on the day expedite started again. I had the new one back in 10 days from the day I sent it, 8 days from the day they processed receiving my old passport. That was pretty good.
 
My wife just renewed her Irish passport. She was able to do everything at home online: renewal application, photo, pay, submit. The new passport arrived within a week We should be so lucky.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
One thing about passports I have learned is, the expiration date is fictional.
If yours expires on Oct 1, and your 2 week travel begins on Sept 1, you are good to go, right?
Nuh-uh!

Many countries require your PP to not expire for 3 months past the visa end date.
So if you travel Sept 1 for a 2 week trip, and they issue a 3 mo visa, your PP must not expire before Sept 1 +3mo + 3mo = Mar 1.
From the Dept of State website.
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Some countries have a 6 month until expiration limit.
 
denverpilot said:
Wow. They finally adapted and went back to work? The “essentials” are impressed. Only half a year. Hahaha.
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Given the stance of their bosses, I'm surprised they closed at all.

That said, the concept that they can't "adjudicate" a passport renewal from home, or even using a machine that scans it, is a joke. I can grudgingly understand people getting initial passports needing a more thorough process, but when you're just sending in a renewal? That should be automatic, like a driver license.

murphey said:
Some countries have a 6 month until expiration limit.
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A lot, actually, have a 6 month requirement.
 
denverpilot said:
Wow. They finally adapted and went back to work? The “essentials” are impressed. Only half a year. Hahaha.
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Guess who was asked if he wanted to WFH back in Feb 2020. (Kudos for asking me)

Guess who has not spent a single day at WFH or spent a single day at home due to illness.

Guess who was covering everyone else that was WFH, or sick themselves, or dealing with family that were sick, and those who were quarantining. (Common empty office situation include quarantining/illness and snow days, guess who never took a snow day either...)

The triple amputee with significant medical history... His eval is April, and he can't wait to see if the boss leaves anything out.
 
Pilawt said:
Data point: We mailed our still-valid passports in for renewal on November 5. Just got word from USPS Informed Delivery that the new ones should arrive here on Saturday, January 23.
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NIce - I guess I'll send ours in now. We have an awkward gap between expiration dates on our DLs and passports and when RealID requirements go into effect.
 
sittin pretty here with a (completely non-functional, but) hot-off-the-press passport
(feeling-foolish OP)
[but I have now explored every nook & cranny of all local state & national parks, lol]
 
Everskyward said:
I was bummed that I had to get my driver's license (because of moving to a new state) before the state I moved to adopted Real ID. Now I will have reached the DL renewal date before we need Real ID.
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I opted to get Real-ID on my last renewal. The California DMV guy was impressed by how old the certified copy of my birth certificate looked!
 
My State started issuing REAL ID compliant DLs a few weeks after I got my last DL. I was about to go get a RI compliant DL either this week or next, but now I might wait. My problem is going to be that for a work project I might have to go into a military facility that requires either RI or a valid passport and my passport is going to expire sometime in the next year or 2 (I can't remember) but it will be after 1 Oct. 1 Oct was when Real ID was going to be required anyway so I was just going to update my DL. Now that the RI deadline is moved out another year +, I have to look at my passport dates again and figure out which will need to be updated first.
 
NoHeat said:
It's hard to understand. Workers at the passport office don't have a bad workplace situation, do they? I don't think any of them face the public, the way a worker at driver's license office does. Is it just themselves in the office? So yeah, why can't they just do what other offices do: less than full staffing in the office, with some barriers and some hygiene protocols, and those with back-office jobs working at home if they can.
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Maybe they are members of the Teachers Union?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Palmpilot said:
I opted to get Real-ID on my last renewal. The California DMV guy was impressed by how old the certified copy of my birth certificate looked!
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This reminds me of a story from a work colleague in Germany. Drivers Licenses there are (like our pilot certificates) not an ID, and not updated frequently. Getting pulled over by police is one of the few occasions that one is seen.

In the 1990’s, my colleague’s rather old mother was still using the license she got about 50 years earlier. It had a swastika. When she was pulled over by a cop, he was amazed to see it.
 
NoHeat said:
This reminds me of a story from a work colleague in Germany. Drivers Licenses there are (like our pilot certificates) not an ID, and not updated frequently. Getting pulled over by police is one of the few occasions that one is seen.

In the 1990’s, my colleague’s rather old mother was still using the license she got about 50 years earlier. It had a swastika. When she was pulled over by a cop, he was amazed to see it.
Click to expand...

My mother was born in Germany in 1942. Her birth certificate has swastikas on it.
 
Well, we're planning a trip to Mexico and just noticed our passports expire in two weeks. Oops. State Department says 4-6 I'd you expedite, so assume 6 weeks. I can make an appointment at the local passport center, but only 72 hours before my travel and I can't make the appointment until 14 days before. What's the excuse for this at this point?
 
Lindberg said:
Well, we're planning a trip to Mexico and just noticed our passports expire in two weeks. Oops. State Department says 4-6 I'd you expedite, so assume 6 weeks. I can make an appointment at the local passport center, but only 72 hours before my travel and I can't make the appointment until 14 days before. What's the excuse for this at this point?
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Federal workers unions are strong. That's the point.



Wayne
 
Lindberg said:
Well, we're planning a trip to Mexico and just noticed our passports expire in two weeks. Oops. State Department says 4-6 I'd you expedite, so assume 6 weeks. I can make an appointment at the local passport center, but only 72 hours before my travel and I can't make the appointment until 14 days before. What's the excuse for this at this point?
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I was in the same situation. Submitted my renewal 4/27 with maximum expedite. Received my new passport 5/27.
 
Lindberg said:
What's the excuse for this at this point?
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They don't need one. What's the penalty for non-performance of duties? None.

On the good news side, if you can sneak out of the country they announced they'll let you back in on an expired one last week or the week before.

Pretty sure Mexico was on that list. Wasn't all countries.

(Was going to post the article here but realized there wasn't any point...)

Shows how truly important the thing is for "security" and such... Not.

They continue to give solid examples of the uselessness of their system. It's fun to watch but uterly meaningless at this point other than as mild entertainment.

Let us know how sneaking out goes. Lol
 
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