passports

I used to be really organized. I used to get things done ahead of time. I used to not lose or forget stuff (much). I used to think all that wouldn't change (much) with kids. HA!

In preparation for our international travels this summer, one big item on our to do list, of course, is get the Vassariños' passports. That process starts with getting birth certificates. The old me probably would have taken care of that in October. Maybe even September. The new me ordered them in March. Maybe February. The old me would have already researched the process for passports before we received the birth certificates. The new me started reading frantically when my sister-in-law gave me tips on what to do and I realized I might need to expedite their passports.

I learned a couple of lessons during this process. 1. You now need an appointment for your passport application. The government is getting efficient! Maybe. 2. Passport photos are a pain.

We called more than a dozen drugstores to try to find one that could take the Vassariños' passport photos. They either don't take pictures of infants or their camera was broken, it seemed like everyone had an excuse. We finally found one that agreed to take the photos. They told us that they opened at 7am, so we planned to be there first thing Saturday morning.

Since it was only about a mile from our home, we went on an early walk and arrived shortly after 7am.  We were told that the machine hadn't warmed up so they wouldn't be able to process the photos.  Why didn't they mention that the night before when they told us that they opened at 7am?  We finally figured out that it only meant we would have to return to pick up the photos and we could still have the pics taken since we were there with two infants.  OK, no biggie.  Then the photo guy asked us where our white sheet was.  What??  Apparently, we were supposed to know that we needed to bring a white sheet to stick behind them in their stroller.  After much begging discussion (did you notice that we have two infants here??) and explanation that we walked 20 minutes to get there, we convinced the photo guy to let us just hold the babies in front of the screen where they take the adult photos since they can sit up and hold their heads up.  I returned the next day to pick up the photos.  These were the results:




Seriously??!!?!  There's no way those photos are going to pass muster.  Sylvia's head is totally blown out (photog speak for so much white light that you can't see the detail).  Maybe Rafa's will pass.  They look a little like criminals, but I'm not really concerned about that, I just need photos that will be accepted at our upcoming appointment.  The photo guy tried to assure me that they are more lenient with infant photos.  But, I figure they're probably more lenient about facial expressions and head tilts, not the quality of the photo. But, he and his assistant assured me they'd be fine.

I decided to take a couple pictures myself just to have a backup set.  I would rather show up with some options than walk away without a passport.  And, trying to find time to load up the kids for another visit to the drugstore that was incompetent the first time did not sound like a winning proposition.  Here's how mine turned out:



I am still a little concerned because I don't have a fancy flash and there wasn't enough natural light, so there are shadows on their faces (which is a big no-no according to the Dept. of State website).  But, they do show more detail than the drugstore pics.  They even make it look like Sylvia has hair, what a feat!  I took the pictures to a different drugstore and the photo guy didn't want to sell the prints to me because he didn't think that they would be acceptable because of the shadows.  He only wanted to sell me photos that he could guarantee would be accepted.  Of course, his camera was broken so he couldn't take new pictures, even if I had the babies with me.  I begged discussed with him that the ones that another location in his chain had given me were worse (he agreed) and that I didn't care about getting a refund on all of the pictures--it wasn't about the money, I just needed pictures for our appointment.  He relented and gave them to me for free and even made a second set which was cropped a little more to cut out some of the shadows even though that means Sylvia's head is a little lower than "required"? on the Department of State website.  Well, at least we have options. 

Fast forward to our appointment.  D picked up the kiddos and the nanny and met me at the post office.  We had an appointment at 11:30 (neatly tucked in between D's meetings), so the nanny made sure the Vassariños napped a little earlier.  We waited at the passport counter, but nobody came to service us, so we went to the regular line.  Once we got to the front, we told Terre that we had an 11:30 appointment.  I started getting out all of our paperwork and she said our name didn't match her 11:30 name.  She said our appointment was at 12:30.  I told her that I called to confirm the time since I had two infants and scheduling was important and she just pointed at her sheet of paper that said 12:30.  I understand that's what your paper says, it's just not what I was told!  So, she had us go stand in the corner while she took care of a couple customers until she decided she could take us.  It felt a little like this:

She did eventually call us over and was helpful, although not particularly nice.  I presented her with all of our passport photo options and she chose the ones that I had taken that were cropped.  Fingers crossed that the Department of State accepts them!  Now, we wait.