(no subject)

[deckardcanine]

On Friday afternoon next week, I'll be going with my family to Barcelona for a week and a half.

...If the government lets us.

My sister and I are squared away, but our parents need to renew their passports. You know what the situation is like now? My dad spent a half-hour on hold to wait for an automated message. And the office was reported closed early in the afternoon, despite previous reports that it was open Saturday from 9 to 5. The system is also set up in a confusing way: it seems not to understand the concept of "renewed" as opposed to "brand new." So they'll be trying to reach an organic life form for clarification.

I can think of one other time in my personal history that we had to cancel set plans for an extended vacation. It was long ago, the destination was less exotic (Florida), and we went there eventually. I hope we don't have to cancel this one.

Comments

[recursivepizza.livejournal.com]

Your parents waited until a week and a half before the trip to get their passports renewed? Yikes. Good luck! I hope you don't have to cancel. That would be sad.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Actually, they didn't wait that long. They've been trying for 11 or 12 weeks, which is a month longer than they were advised.

[recursivepizza.livejournal.com]

Ah. Fair enough.

[zaimoni.livejournal.com]

With waiting times having hit a full year for a new passport (thanks to completely unneeded passport checks at the Canadian border, returning from Puerto Rico, etc. scheduled for Jan. 1 2008 -- air travel is scheduled to be hit Sept. 1 2007) ... that distinction is entirely too critical.

If the bureaucracy continues to be elusive: "Congressman, help me!"

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Are you advising my folks to ask our Congressman for help?

Too bad we're all registered in the District of Columbia.

[zaimoni.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was in the back of my mind. However, you only lack Senators. The current Representative for the District of Columbia is Eleanor Holmes Norton (D). [I do wish www.house.gov made tracking this easier, but the ZIP query using their own ZIP worked].

Unfortunately, this is the kind of red-tape slashing that it's good to know how to reach them for.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Yes, she is our Representative, but my folks consider her all too low on power. Almost a figurehead.

[ruediix.livejournal.com]

George W Bush's office doesn't even return his email sometimes, if his office doesn't have a pre-written reply for his email they just dump it in the trash. Several congressmen in my area are the same way.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Okay, my mom just read my comments and says I'm selling Norton short: "Even if she doesn't vote, she does have as much pull as any member of Congress at an executive branch agency." My folks did contact Norton and learned that they can turn to her if they don't get their passports by the 10th.

[ruediix.livejournal.com]

Ah the endless voice mail system. You can alway try hitting "0" if they don't have the right option. That will sometimes bring you to the Operator which is either a real person or a more direct menu.