We are scheduled to leave on our summer vacation next Friday. That is 9 days away from today. We are spending a long weekend in Boston, then getting on a cruise ship and heading up to Canada. I have not started packing and I have not made one single list! I have started my lists in "my head" ( a lot of good that will do me!) and have started to think about my plan of attack for packing. I have also picked up a few things for the twins - umbrella stroller, take and toss cups, travel wipes. Nothing too exciting. I did order some more bags for myself and hope they come in before we leave!
I need to get moving on the packing. Which I am starting to panic about. What I am really panicking about is our passports. The children and I do not have passports. Mine expired and the kids did not have. Back in late April/early May we had our passport photos done, filled out all the forms and went to the post office to have them finalized. We decided that we would utilize the post office for the paperwork portion, but use an agency to hand carry our passports and get them processed (benefit of living in Washington DC!). So glad we did. My husband told us last night that the post office instructed us to use the wrong forms for the children and over charged us by about $60 per child. Trying to stay calm, but it is not working! The agency said that it takes about 3-5 business days to get a passport processed and it looks like we are going to have to start everything over. We are cutting it very, very close! I have double checked and we can no longer use birth certificates to visit our neighbors to the North and must have valid passports or passport cards.
I am at a loss for what I should do. Do I proceed like we are going and start packing? Or do I wait until passports are in hand? My choices are pack and unpack, or wait and pull an all nighter! I also need to go to Target and raid the dollar section for prizes and activities we can take on the ship.
What should I do?!
Have a great day!
Call the passport office and make an appointment. Kaan's US passport had expired last year - he booked his flight (mandated by office) and THEN made his appointment. He flew out the next day to his uncle's funeral in Turkey. It's not a big deal - but GO to the office in DC. They will process everything the same day or so. It's a very disorganized office, though. Call me if you have questions!!! A friend of mine did it for her father's funeral, too - she lives in NC and drove up here to get it done and fly out of IAD to Brazil the next day.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cheryl! Looks like the agency can get them in time - or so they said yesterday. This is what happens when "someone" (he who shall not be named!) waits until the last minute! I might make an appointment and cancel if we don't need.
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