Applying for Passports with babies in Person

Doesn't that just sound like fun? Going to the post office when Mom and Dad are both available (so over Daddy's lunch break in our case) then standing in the 20+ person line and the 2 or 3 Postal Employees take everyone one at a time? Even better, getting sent home when it's your turn! And not because we did the paperwork wrong or forgot something.

If you go to the US Passport Application site, you can punch in your zipcode and it will give you a list of the closest application centers and their details. As it turns out, a lot of those details are incorrect.

We opted to meet at the large Post Office half way between our home and Chris' office for obvious reasons over his lunch break. For any minors applying for a passport, from what I understand, both parents have to apply in person with the minors. Both of the parents names have to be on the birth certificate or documentation provided.

I got the hours off the website, it said appointments preferred so I tried calling to make an appointment but no one answered and there was not voicemail. Oh well, preferred, right? It wasn't the only thing the website was wrong about, it turns out you can only pay with credit card at a few major centers.

So on our first day, I waited in line for 20 minutes. James ate his PBJ bit by bit and Caterina slept. I rocked the stroller back and forth so Caterina would continue to think we were moving and stay asleep. The guy in line behind me who was saving room for my double stroller was chastised by they guy behind him for not cramming together more, as if that would make the line go faster. Chris joined us and waited another 10 or 15 minutes until it was our turn.

We went to the booth, documents and applications in hand saying we were there to apply for passports. Rather than apologizing or delivering the news sweetly, the postal employee was apparently dumbfounded that we didn't have an appointment. We had to make one the next day, again over lunch hour, but later. Definitely nap time. Buh-bye.

We went through the whole ordeal the next day, except Caterina was awake and needed to be rocked and fed. At least the postal employee who "helped us" left to take her lunch break and we got a much nicer person. Not only did she apologize for all of the misinformation (and she asked us about it, we didn't complain to her!) but she complimented our baby passport photos. After the trials and errors, it was music to my ears. (Yea ePassportPhotos.com!)

$210 later, I don't want to calculate the actual time cost, it's all over and hopefully the next thing I'll have to report about our children's passports is their arrival! We expect them in 4 weeks.