Have your Passport ready in case you need to travel abroad (or to Miami)

We are hoping to attend Claudia’s youngest sister’s wedding in Chile in just a few weeks, but realized that Jeremy’s passport will soon expire. (I didn’t even have a passport until college, but we’re already on Jeremy’s second!)

So, Claudia spent hours online and by phone only to find that a child’s passport cannot be renewed by mail, and that both parents must be present to renew. She then phoned all over Miami and found that the only “drop in” office in the city (all others had a month+ waiting list) opened at 10:00 AM. So there we were at 9:30 the next morning only to be told that yes, the passport desk opens at 10:00 but we needed to be there at 8:00 in order to get on the day’s list, which was already full for the day. (Why they left out that one vital detail when we called is beyond me). So, Claudia went back home with the kids, I went back to work and returned at 7:15 the next morning to find two people already in line (probably still there from the day before).

True to what we’d been told (the second time around), a gentleman arrived to open the post office at 8:00, but when we asked him for the passport appointment list he flatly informed us: “We don’t have a list; the passport desk opens at 10:00”. Deaf to our protests he opened a few doors, moved a box or two then had a cup of coffee, leaving us standing in front of the passport counter for 45 minutes. Finally, coffee gone, he casually walked over to the passport desk and produced the very clipboard and list we had been asking for! Everyone in line (there was now a small crowd) stared at him in disbelief, muttering descriptive words just out of his earshot so as not to jeopardize their chances any further. I confess that I myself found it rather difficult to “assume the best” of this civil servant at that particular moment as well.

So, the two men in front of me filled in the 10:00 and 10:30 slots and I took the 11:00. Not wanting to assume anything at this point I asked if that meant I could now go to work and return with the family for our 11:00 AM appointment. Not surprisingly he said “no” and explained that the times do not mean anything but that everyone in line (now about 20 adults, most with fidgety children making the entire post office look something like a sugar hyped, chocolate factory daycare) had to stay until their names were called starting at 10:00. (Flashback to the stunned disbelief and descriptive words from a few minutes earlier.)

“What’s the point in having time slots?” I asked.
“It works better this way” he said as I watched one of the kids spill sticky grape juice all over the floor.

So…Claudia and the boys joined me in line before 10:00. We were the second party to be attended since the first person in line left before 10:00 (possibly having a nervous breakdown). And Jeremy’s passport should arrive within a week.

It makes me proud to be an American and know our government handles these things with such dedication and efficiency. Maybe, once Jeremy has his passport, we’ll actually cross the boarder from Miami and visit the US one of these days!