So Weird
An update on the passport saga...
Our birth certificates took forever to get here, but they finally arrived on Saturday, so we could move ahead with getting replacement passports.
We wanted to make an appointment at a passport agency in LA or San Francisco because you can usually get your passport in the same day, whereas if you just pay the expedite fee, it's possible they might not come in time (and you have to provide proof of travel in the next two weeks, so you have to buy tickets without knowing if the passports will be ready). Normally this would probably be fine, but there's been a huge backlog thanks to the new regulations that require you to have a passport to go to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean, so it could be risky. The other option is to pay a company to do it for you, which costs an extra $70-$150 depending on how fast you need the passport.
Making an appointment at the passport agency was definitely the best option, both money and time wise. After going through a long automated message, you can finally choose if you want to search for the next available appointment or for a certain day. Of course we searched for the next available appointment...the only problem was, there were no appointments available in the next two weeks. We had all but given up and decided to go with an agency that charges extra just to be sure that we would have the passports in time to get visas before we needed to leave, but then I decided to try a specific date just in case, and lo and behold, the day I chose--this coming Friday--had an appointment available at 7 am in LA. I spent another half an hour trying to see if there were earlier appointments in LA or SF, but that was the only one--somehow I just got lucky the first time.
So that was exciting in itself--we would get to save money and know for sure that our passports would be ready in time.
But then Joel decided to check the tracking number on our passports one last time...and lo and behold, they were delivered! This was almost three weeks after we sent off our certified priority mail package that was never even scanned into the system but somehow at long last found its way from Santa Barbara to the visa agency in LA. Joel called the visa agency this morning and they did receive it and had already submitted our visa applications to the Chinese embassy. (Of course, why the agent didn't call us when the package showed up like she was supposed to is a different story.) Assuming all goes well with the visas, we'll probably be on our way to China in a week or less!
Here's where it gets freaky. Remember how I was talking about Mercury retrograde causing problems with travel and how it fortunately ended on March 8th? Guess when our package was delivered to the agency--MARCH 8TH.
So. Weird. But I'm not complaining!
Our birth certificates took forever to get here, but they finally arrived on Saturday, so we could move ahead with getting replacement passports.
We wanted to make an appointment at a passport agency in LA or San Francisco because you can usually get your passport in the same day, whereas if you just pay the expedite fee, it's possible they might not come in time (and you have to provide proof of travel in the next two weeks, so you have to buy tickets without knowing if the passports will be ready). Normally this would probably be fine, but there's been a huge backlog thanks to the new regulations that require you to have a passport to go to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean, so it could be risky. The other option is to pay a company to do it for you, which costs an extra $70-$150 depending on how fast you need the passport.
Making an appointment at the passport agency was definitely the best option, both money and time wise. After going through a long automated message, you can finally choose if you want to search for the next available appointment or for a certain day. Of course we searched for the next available appointment...the only problem was, there were no appointments available in the next two weeks. We had all but given up and decided to go with an agency that charges extra just to be sure that we would have the passports in time to get visas before we needed to leave, but then I decided to try a specific date just in case, and lo and behold, the day I chose--this coming Friday--had an appointment available at 7 am in LA. I spent another half an hour trying to see if there were earlier appointments in LA or SF, but that was the only one--somehow I just got lucky the first time.
So that was exciting in itself--we would get to save money and know for sure that our passports would be ready in time.
But then Joel decided to check the tracking number on our passports one last time...and lo and behold, they were delivered! This was almost three weeks after we sent off our certified priority mail package that was never even scanned into the system but somehow at long last found its way from Santa Barbara to the visa agency in LA. Joel called the visa agency this morning and they did receive it and had already submitted our visa applications to the Chinese embassy. (Of course, why the agent didn't call us when the package showed up like she was supposed to is a different story.) Assuming all goes well with the visas, we'll probably be on our way to China in a week or less!
Here's where it gets freaky. Remember how I was talking about Mercury retrograde causing problems with travel and how it fortunately ended on March 8th? Guess when our package was delivered to the agency--MARCH 8TH.
So. Weird. But I'm not complaining!
posted by AJ at 10:59 PM
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