Follow Up On "Passport-gate"

better late than never, right?

so anyway, I've been meaning to follow up on passport related issues for quite a while now, but I've been, you know, busy.

But I'm following up now. When we last visited this issue, I had my passport renewal all packaged up and ready to go. As I said at the time:

I have the DS-82 all filled out, the photos ready, the check written, and my passport all stuffed into the requisite padded envelope, ready to go to the Post Office. I should get it in the mail on Monday or, with the way my life works, sometime between Monday and Flag Day.

As it turns out, I managed to send the thing in on Easter Monday, 24 March 2008. Hey, sometimes the blind squirrel finds the acorn, right?

I received my spankin' new passport on Friday, 4 April 2008. We're talking a "ten business day" turn-around. OutStanding!

But it gets even better. Our Stoopid Business™ department's CAD Guy sent in new passport applications for his children (ages 1 and 3), as well as his (I believe, don't quote me) dual-citizenship wife, and had the passports in hand in one week! Hokey Smokes, BatMan! A week! The applications were mailed on 27 May 2008, the passports received on 3 June 2008.

If it adds to the calculations, my Passport renewal was mailed from a suburb of The Peoples Republic of Ann Arbor; CAD Guy's stuff was sent from a suburb of Detroit (Rock City)

I freely admit that I'm often the first one to point out the inefficiencies of our government. The State Department's Passport operation (Consular Affairs?) is doing it right.

Next week, I'll actually sign my crispy new Passport, unless I'm distracted by something. It's a joke, I signed it the day it arrived

Do yourself a favor: do go read Consul-At-Arms excellent primer on all things passport. You'll be glad you did.

thatisall