Fast service is something I generally don’t expect from a government agency, but I was pleasantly surprised when I sent in my passport for renewal. It had slipped my mind with all that has been going on recently, but I realized that my old passport expires next year in February. That would still be 6-months good if/when we go to Whistler for mountain biking in July/August, but it would be too short for Japan in September. There would be insufficient time to get the renewal after Whistler, so I needed to get it beforehand. The turnaround was supposed to be 6-8 weeks, and that was a little tight considering the July/August trip. I grabbed the renewal form from the Downtown Post Office, got photos from Sears, and sent everything in on the 4th.
I was busy at work all last week, so I didn’t get to track the number on the Certified Mail receipt. Lo and behold, some envelopes from the government showed up on Tuesday! They sent back my cancelled old passport via regular first-class mail, and several days later the new passport by Priority mail. Both arrived at the same time. I checked the USPS site Wednesday and found that the Passport Renewal Office received my stuff on the 7th. Sent on the 4th and returned on the 17th – that’s a 2-week turnaround! Awesome! I don’t see a reason to pay the almost double for expedited processing at this time. Just how much faster would they get it to you? It’s not like before when you could go to the Fort Street Mall passport office and get it that day.
The new passport is one of those “electronic passports” with an imbedded RFID chip in the cover somewhere with all kinds of sinister stuff encoded onto it. The main page is on the second sheet instead of being on the inside of the front cover. The visa pages have more-difficult-to-counterfeit multicolored pretty pictures instead of the state seals that were on the older one.
I’m good to go!
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