Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am new to this thread. I have s passport photo and the form (which I need to complete.) At the risk of sounding dumb, what is the post office appointment for? I thought you could just send in birth certificate, photo, and form to the state department. Please tell me the steps. Thank you!!!

If you are applying for a minor, the minor and parents all have to go in person to a passport agency (which a lot of Post Offices are). If one parent can't go, they can fill out a form and get it notarized.

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/under-16.html

This was an easier task for us since Saturdays were CRAZY in the post offices! Some places had open call on Saturdays and we got lucky and did one child and my own by walking in. Our older child was away at the time so we did that one with a notarized for and one parent after school one day. Much easier. And yes, have all photos already taken and bring copies of driver's licenses. The form said to have the licenses, not to have a copy of it and we had to run out and make the copies in order to proceed.

The post office website should let you search with those parameters.

Total pain. We all went to the post office during the week, only to learn that we needed an appointment. The website said nothing about it. Then we had to wait about three weeks before we could get in, again during the week. And the passport is only valid for five years.

Thank you, pp!

It's not that hard there are plenty of post office poassport offices with saturday hours and you can make an appt in advance. We went to the one behind Montgomery Mall. Here's the link to find one near you. https://tools.usps.com/go/POLocatorAction.action

Anonymous wrote:I am new to this thread. I have s passport photo and the form (which I need to complete.) At the risk of sounding dumb, what is the post office appointment for? I thought you could just send in birth certificate, photo, and form to the state department. Please tell me the steps. Thank you!!!

If you are applying for a minor, the minor and parents all have to go in person to a passport agency (which a lot of Post Offices are). If one parent can't go, they can fill out a form and get it notarized.

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/under-16.html

Anonymous wrote:I am new to this thread. I have s passport photo and the form (which I need to complete.) At the risk of sounding dumb, what is the post office appointment for? I thought you could just send in birth certificate, photo, and form to the state department. Please tell me the steps. Thank you!!!

If you are getting a passport for the first time you have to apply in person. You can renew a passport by mail (unless you are under 15.)

I am new to this thread. I have s passport photo and the form (which I need to complete.) At the risk of sounding dumb, what is the post office appointment for? I thought you could just send in birth certificate, photo, and form to the state department. Please tell me the steps. Thank you!!!

You go to a post office to present the documents. If a parent/guardian can not be present, there is a separate form you must submit.

OP here.

Just made an appt for the 22nd. Yay!

Thanks everyone for the advice. From the Passport Government website, it didn't look like there were Saturday appts available. But from the USPS website, they were.

And to the snarky poster - I never said that I needed the passport agency come to me. I was simply stating my frustration for potentially having to take several hours off work. Maybe you should take your passport and go on vacation to relax!

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.

Woah, that's not what I said at all. I was simply pointing out to someone who was being incredibly dismissive of the difficulty OP was having that not everyone has the flexibility/leniency in their workplace that pp did, so it's not always as simply as "just leave the office and do it." OP said nothing about expecting the passport agency to come to her, she was simply frustrated with how challenging it would be to get herself and her child to the office during business hours.

And for the record, I'm currently a SAHM so I didn't have this issue when getting my child's passport earlier this year, I could take pretty much any available appointment. That doesn't mean that I can't sympathize with people who aren't in the same position I am, though.