Uh oh.

[rivka]

In IM conversation with eck, he mentioned that his passport was about to expire, and suddenly I realized that I had had mine forever and maybe I should...

Shit. My passport expired 12 APR/AVR 02.

I'm flying to Canada on Wednesday.

I've found a couple of U.S. government websites here and here suggesting that an expired passport is considered valid proof of US citizenship. On the other hand, this airline website explicitly states that a US citizen can no longer travel between the US and Canada on an expired passport. Ordinarily, I'd trust the US State Department over Alaska Airlines; on the other hand, I can't exactly afford to be sanguinely confident that I'll be allowed entry and re-entry.

For $225 a private company promises to get me a passport renewal in 24 hours. The official Washington DC Passport Agency says they provide service for people travelling in less than 14 days, by appointment only, Monday through Friday, but they don't say how long it takes or how much it costs.

I e-mailed my mother to see if she still has an official copy of my birth certificate. I have a hazy, and horrible, memory that she may have sent it to me once before, and that it's maybe supposed to be in my care. I hope I'm wrong, because if she can express-mail me my birth certificate that solution will definitely be simplest, cheapest, and most obviously acceptable to the participating governments.

You'd think my expired passport would be just as valid as my birth certificate. It's an official US document that clearly lists my place of birth as "Ohio, USA," and it has to be harder to forge than a flimsy little pictureless slip of paper stamped with the Cuyahoga County seal. If it weren't for that airline website, I'd feel perfectly confident.

Argh.

Update: Yay, mom. She has my birth certificate, and she's sending it today.

Comments

[elisem.livejournal.com]

I poked around that web site a little, and found out that passport application (for the quick sort) is $35 plus the cost of overnight delivery. So theoretically, if you could get an appointment for Monday, you could have it Tuesday....


Here's where I found that info:
http://travel.state.gov/passport_expedite.html

[elisem.livejournal.com]

And they have an automated appointment line, too, so you could call, oh, any moment, theoretically. From the website:



* WASHINGTON Passport Agency
1111 19th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20524

Hours: 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Automated Appointment Number: (202) 647-0518



(What's funny to me is that other people's paperwork is easy for me to untangle, but mine daunts the heck out of me. Go figure.)

[redbird]

So, if you need some untangled, ask one of us. Other people's problems are usually easier.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

It's actually (I discovered from calling the automated line) $40 for renewal plus $35 for expediting plus the fee for overnight delivery... and it doesn't say that your passport will be ready overnight, it just says that when your passport is ready they'll mail it to you overnight. They might indeed have next-day service at official passport agencies, but they didn't really say so - all the official passport sites say that an expedited passport "usually arrives within 14 days," and it's only the private, expensive expediting service that guarantee 24 hours.

But! This is all moot because my lovely mother writes,

We are express mailing your birth certificate this AM and I think we can handle the associated expenses. I am wondering if
over the weekend if priority mail might be just as good, but will use
express unless postal clerk says that is senseless.

Yay, mom! I am saved.