Posted in2022 Quick Thought Series

A Thought on Renewing My Passport

March 22, 2022

My passport has 40 stamps and 3 visas in it. It has gotten me into 30 countries over the last 10 years.

It doesn’t expire until two weeks after the end of my trip this summer, but the rule is that I need a six-month cushion so I have to renew it now, three months before I leave. Fair enough.

So here is what I have done so far today:

  1. I went onto the internet to find the appropriate form to fill out.
  2. I filled that form out online.
  3. I hit “print.”
  4. I took a picture of myself on a digital camera.
  5. I drove that digital camera to Walmart, plugged it into a computer, and hit “print.”
  6. I sliced that picture down to 2″x2″ and stapled it to the printed form.
  7. I found my checkbook and wrote my first check in 2 years (the last check I wrote was also to the government, FYI).

Now that I have done all that,

  1. I must take my passport, the form, the picture, and the check and put them into a parcel.
  2. I must take that parcel to a post office and give them $15-$20.
  3. That parcel will be put on a truck, then a plane, then another truck, then a federal building.
  4. The form will be removed from the parcel and scanned into a computer.
  5. The picture will be removed and scanned into a computer.
  6. The check will be removed and the money will be wired from my bank account to the federal government’s.

This is the updated, quick, efficient 21st century process. This is the government doing its best to get with the times. Even though the technologies have existed for at least a decade, I am not allowed to

  1. File a form online.
  2. Send a digital picture digitally.
  3. Pay by PayPal, credit card, or bank wire.

So in addition to the 11 weeks that the government gives themselves for processing (it’s the government, no one expects it to be efficient) I also have to give them two weeks up front for them to receive my parcel in the mail and two weeks at the end to send my new passport back by mail.

The standard time for renewing a passport in the most advanced nation on earth in the year 2022 is 15 weeks.

I don’t have anything constructive to say about this. I just thought it was funny.