My tip: do your child's picture ahead of time (especially if your child is an infant or toddler). Our post office was not equipped/willing to take photos of squirmy toddlers. The drugstore down the street had much more success!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not following how this is so difficult. Can you elaborate?

Because without late or weekend hours, you have to take time off of work to get it done. Is this something you would like to take a vacation day for?

Luckily, we now live in an area with Saturday hours, and we just walked right in. Another reason I'm glad I'm not in DC now.

Well, it's inconvenient, but "difficult' is a bit of an exaggeration.

I don't have to take a vacation day. I just go do an errand and return to the office. No big deal.

Um, that's nice for you that you have the freedom to leave the office during the day to run errands. Not everyone has that luxury, especially if the child in question is in daycare, so that "errand" involves 25 minutes to get to daycare and pick said child up, 15 minutes to the post office, a half hour at the post office, 15 minutes back to daycare and 25 minutes back to the office. It can easily be a two hour or more disruption to the day, even with an appointment (which they often won't do during typical lunch hour times, because the post office employees are taking lunch breaks too).

So you are special and they should come to you? Here's a hint: you are not the only two career couple in the DC are with young children in daycare. Deal.

What a lousy attitude you have.

Instead of "deal" they should make passport hours user friendly. Duh.

For places that take appointments, you can walkin and if they don't have an appointment scheduled, or have a no-show they will take you. If they don't (happened when we were there) then you leave with nothing. It's a risk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not following how this is so difficult. Can you elaborate?

Because without late or weekend hours, you have to take time off of work to get it done. Is this something you would like to take a vacation day for?

Luckily, we now live in an area with Saturday hours, and we just walked right in. Another reason I'm glad I'm not in DC now.

Well, it's inconvenient, but "difficult' is a bit of an exaggeration.

I don't have to take a vacation day. I just go do an errand and return to the office. No big deal.

Um, that's nice for you that you have the freedom to leave the office during the day to run errands. Not everyone has that luxury, especially if the child in question is in daycare, so that "errand" involves 25 minutes to get to daycare and pick said child up, 15 minutes to the post office, a half hour at the post office, 15 minutes back to daycare and 25 minutes back to the office. It can easily be a two hour or more disruption to the day, even with an appointment (which they often won't do during typical lunch hour times, because the post office employees are taking lunch breaks too).

So you are special and they should come to you? Here's a hint: you are not the only two career couple in the DC are with young children in daycare. Deal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes it's a pain. Yes you all need to be there unless you can get the form notarized (or something like that--there is a way to avoid having both parents there but it may not be worth it for you). That said it's once every five years. We did find our post office was not open for passport appointments Saturday so had to go during the week.

Can you not renew by mail for a kid?

Nope. All renewals for kids must be in person. I think once they turn 16, they can get a normal 10 year passport (which thereafter can be done by mail). We've had several for our DC - both US and Diplomatic passports - so I'm hoping to time the next renewal to age 16 and it will be the last one I have to buy!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes it's a pain. Yes you all need to be there unless you can get the form notarized (or something like that--there is a way to avoid having both parents there but it may not be worth it for you). That said it's once every five years. We did find our post office was not open for passport appointments Saturday so had to go during the week.

Can you not renew by mail for a kid?

No, you can't. Kid must make an appearance until they're eligible for an adult passport.

Anonymous wrote:Merrifield post office (in VA) has moved to all appts, as well. We're in VA and it took me more than a month to get a Saturday appt. And that was with calling around to many post offices - some were booking months out for Saturday appts. We ended up at the Great Falls, VA post office. The location kind of sucks, but the guy is SUPER nice. When we showed up for our appt, he said we were the first ones to actually show. You may be able to take your chances and just walk in and see if they'll fit you in. I bet the guy at Great Falls would do that.

Remember black ink and bring your check book!

Ooh...when was that? I just got my kids' passports as a walk-in mid-July...maybe we were one of the last ones to not need an appt?

The McLean Tysons post office right off Rt 7 does Saturday hours and we just made one for two Saturdays from now, so not all of them are running at least a month.

Anonymous wrote:Yes it's a pain. Yes you all need to be there unless you can get the form notarized (or something like that--there is a way to avoid having both parents there but it may not be worth it for you). That said it's once every five years. We did find our post office was not open for passport appointments Saturday so had to go during the week.

Can you not renew by mail for a kid?

Merrifield post office (in VA) has moved to all appts, as well. We're in VA and it took me more than a month to get a Saturday appt. And that was with calling around to many post offices - some were booking months out for Saturday appts. We ended up at the Great Falls, VA post office. The location kind of sucks, but the guy is SUPER nice. When we showed up for our appt, he said we were the first ones to actually show. You may be able to take your chances and just walk in and see if they'll fit you in. I bet the guy at Great Falls would do that.

Remember black ink and bring your check book!

I got the last appointment during the week (I think it was 5:30pm). DH left work a little early, we waited maybe 15min and were done in 5. I had all paperwork filled out and brought everything we needed (and probably more). Very easy and painless. DD actually did an awesome job with her picture, she was a little angry with us and no need to tell her to smile for them.

Not sure I understand why so hard to have an appointment during the week (don't you do to the doctor or a dentist sometimes?). We just got passports via the post office near my office. My husband brought the boys. The entire appointment took 30 minutes.

For us, the hardest part was getting the passport photos because our kids refused to cooperate when we went to FedEx/Kinkos - we had 2 visits with no usable photos. Finally I used an app on my iPhone called Passport Photo Booth and did the photos at home. I did have to buy a sheet of white poster board to have a white background to the photos, but otherwise it was easy and the boys cooperated at home. I printed the photos on my home printer; they were accepted by the State Department and are now on the boys' passports.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not following how this is so difficult. Can you elaborate?

Because without late or weekend hours, you have to take time off of work to get it done. Is this something you would like to take a vacation day for?

Luckily, we now live in an area with Saturday hours, and we just walked right in. Another reason I'm glad I'm not in DC now.

Well, it's inconvenient, but "difficult' is a bit of an exaggeration.

I don't have to take a vacation day. I just go do an errand and return to the office. No big deal.

Um, that's nice for you that you have the freedom to leave the office during the day to run errands. Not everyone has that luxury, especially if the child in question is in daycare, so that "errand" involves 25 minutes to get to daycare and pick said child up, 15 minutes to the post office, a half hour at the post office, 15 minutes back to daycare and 25 minutes back to the office. It can easily be a two hour or more disruption to the day, even with an appointment (which they often won't do during typical lunch hour times, because the post office employees are taking lunch breaks too).

This is OP. Thanks PP! I was just going to write the same response. Daycare is across town from my job. And I would rather not make an appt during his nap time, so that takes out 2 hours of the day.

Not sure where you are, but the post office in Merrifield has Saturday hours. Be sure to get there early; they said people can start lining up at 5am. We went on a weekday and waited 3 hours with our kids. Make sure you fill out your form in BLACK ink, or you'll have to redo it.

PP again - back when i did this, the chevy chase post office (or maybe friendship hts) and potomac village both had sat hours.