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renewed passports

Tennessee Titan

By Tennessee Titan,
in Holland America Line

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firsttimer1971

firsttimer1971

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Wow, 7 weeks.... in my country (The Netherlands) it takes 5 working days. And if you really need it urgently, the next day is possible (for an extra fee). But for all applications we do have to go to our local City Hall in person. 

 

Now I understand why I see so many questions about "do i need a passport for this cruise" on Facebook. 

 

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erdufylla

erdufylla

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6 hours ago, firsttimer1971 said:

Wow, 7 weeks.... in my country (The Netherlands) it takes 5 working days. And if you really need it urgently, the next day is possible (for an extra fee). But for all applications we do have to go to our local City Hall in person. 

 

Now I understand why I see so many questions about "do i need a passport for this cruise" on Facebook. 

 


Yeah, it can be a major ordeal here in the US. Mine expires next spring, and I’ve got a cruise booked for next summer I’ll need it for. In order to renew it, I have to mail it in (along with the form, a new photo, and payment) and just wait for it to be returned. If I mail it in now, I will probably have the new one back by October, but it could potentially take as long as 17 weeks according to the website (though that’s the extreme end of the timeline window), and that makes it risky to book anything for October or November of this year.

 

There are places you can go for one-day turnaround on passports in emergency situations, but they’re often fully booked up and don’t take walk-ins, and they’re often not close by. I read one story of a woman who drove 9 hours to one such office that could fit her in (and then 9 hours back home, where she was flying out the next day). 

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tscoffey

tscoffey

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Posted (edited)

Sounds like a great excuse to visit some of the many wonderful parks in the US National Parks system while waiting for the new passport. Pick a 4-6 month window without needing a passport, plan visits to Yellowstone, Arcadia, Glacier, Smokey Mountains, Grand Canyon, etc, submit the renewal.

 

No worries - and the trips are equally as memorable.

Edited by tscoffey
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Duquesmom

Duquesmom

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My passport expires October, 2024, & have a Caribbean cruise booked in February & Alaska in June.  I just read that you don’t have to send the almost expired passport in.

If I read it correctly, I can go to a Post Office & renew while keeping my passport if I take my original birth certificate & give them a copy of it.  Can only renew passport within 1 year of expiration.  I do intend to check this out further in the fall.

6 hours ago, erdufylla said:


Yeah, it can be a major ordeal here in the US. Mine expires next spring, and I’ve got a cruise booked for next summer I’ll need it for. In order to renew it, I have to mail it in (along with the form, a new photo, and payment) and just wait for it to be returned. If I mail it in now, I will probably have the new one back by October, but it could potentially take as long as 17 weeks according to the website (though that’s the extreme end of the timeline window), and that makes it risky to book anything for October or November of this year.

 

There are places you can go for one-day turnaround on passports in emergency situations, but they’re often fully booked up and don’t take walk-ins, and they’re often not close by. I read one story of a woman who drove 9 hours to one such office that could fit her in (and then 9 hours back home, where she was flying out the next day). 

 

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erdufylla

erdufylla

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Yeah, I read a little while ago that they stopped the online renewal option, which was in beta testing. I heard the backlog on that was insane, and it wasn’t going very well. It’s a shame, because from a consumer standpoint, it would make things so much easier to be able to renew online!

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POA1 "Live from...." Rare

POA1

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1 hour ago, Duquesmom said:

My passport expires October, 2024, & have a Caribbean cruise booked in February & Alaska in June.  I just read that you don’t have to send the almost expired passport in.

If I read it correctly, I can go to a Post Office & renew while keeping my passport if I take my original birth certificate & give them a copy of it.  Can only renew passport within 1 year of expiration.  I do intend to check this out further in the fall.

 

I'm not sure about the post office, but you do have send your old passport and/or passport card in when you renew by mail. You have plenty of time, so I'd start now.

 

I renewed my passport last year and it took 5 weeks. My wife did hers this year and it took the whole 13 weeks. They received it two days after we sent it Express Mail™ (by the US Postal Service) and the check was cashed within a week. Then, I diligently checked the passport renewal status site each Monday and Friday, where I received the really helpful "In Process" or "No Information" messages for months. Eventually the passport card showed up, followed by the passport book a few days later.

 

We live in Florida. That means our passport center is in Texas. The passport book & card was sent to from Buffalo, NY. (I'm sure that makes total sense to a bureaucrat.)

 

On the plus side, her new passport is the fancy new kind with the one hard plastic page and the double photo. My vintage 2022 model is the old style. Fortunately, we have about a decade until we have to renew. I'm sure they'll still be blaming COVID for the slow turnaround time, but they won't use Covid-19, because that will seem silly in the 2030s.

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Duquesmom

Duquesmom

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1 hour ago, POA1 said:

I'm not sure about the post office, but you do have send your old passport and/or passport card in when you renew by mail. You have plenty of time, so I'd start now.

My passport expires end of October, 2024.  Have to be within a year from expiration date.  I will start the process the end of October, 2023.

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AllTheSun

AllTheSun

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4 hours ago, Duquesmom said:

My passport expires October, 2024, & have a Caribbean cruise booked in February & Alaska in June.  I just read that you don’t have to send the almost expired passport in.

If I read it correctly, I can go to a Post Office & renew while keeping my passport if I take my original birth certificate & give them a copy of it.  Can only renew passport within 1 year of expiration.  I do intend to check this out further in the fall.

 

Where in the world are you getting your info? Wait. Doesn’t matter. ONLY read the info directly from the State Department. It is extremely unlikely you don’t meet the qualifications to renew by mail so therefore you cannot renew at the post office. And yes you have to turn in your passport.

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ocean sounds

ocean sounds

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Posted (edited)
12 hours ago, POA1 said:

On the plus side, her new passport is the fancy new kind with the one hard plastic page and the double photo. My vintage 2022 model is the old style.


@POA1,  we just returned from Rome after a Med cruise.  My DGS had the new passport with purple pages, and double photo, as his was renewed in November, and received in January of this year. 

 

 My DD and I had older passports.   As we cleared passport control in FCO to fly home, DGS new passport didn’t work on the self scanner lanes.  
 

My DD and I had already scanned and gone through.  An airport worker took DGS (a teen) by the arm and walked him away, while DD repeatedly tried to find out where to meet him. Very stressful, and took about 10 minutes to contact him.   All was good, as teen had a phone to call us.  They took him to a line for UK manual passport control.   Not sure why UK instead of US. 
 

Just a caution, other countries’ passport scanners may not yet work with the new US passports, so let your DW scan hers first, to possibly prevent being separated. 

 

Edited by ocean sounds
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ocean sounds

ocean sounds

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2 hours ago, ocean sounds said:


@POA1,  we just returned from Rome after a Med cruise.  My DGS had the new passport with purple pages, and double photo, as his was renewed in November, and received in January of this year. 

 

 My DD and I had older passports.   As we cleared passport control in FCO to fly home, DGS new passport didn’t work on the self scanner lanes.  
 

My DD and I had already scanned and gone through.  An airport worker took DGS (a teen) by the arm and walked him away, while DD repeatedly tried to find out where to meet him. Very stressful, and took about 10 minutes to contact him.   All was good, as teen had a phone to call us.  They took him to a line for UK manual passport control.   Not sure why UK instead of US. 
 

Just a caution, other countries’ passport scanners may not yet work with the new US passports, so let your DW scan hers first, to possibly prevent being separated. 

 


@POA1, sorry link above didn’t work properly

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S&B

S&B

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We received our new passports yesterday and it took 7 weeks.   New passports but now no place to go until January 2024 but looking at lots of memories from the 15 weeks we spent on the Zaandam in 2022!

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lazey1

lazey1

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My request for passport renewal was recived on June 6, 2023 at the Philadelphia office and the check was cashed on the same day. When I requested status the reply was "in process".  Now it is a waiting game to see how long it takes. Web site says 7 weeks for expidited requests, my congressman says up to 16 weeks. 

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RoundGuy2771

RoundGuy2771

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On 6/24/2023 at 2:06 AM, firsttimer1971 said:

Wow, 7 weeks.... in my country (The Netherlands) it takes 5 working days.

 

 

Yes, if only the US had the population of The Netherlands, that would be great.

 

We're 100% Dutch ancestry and can't wait for our cruise in 2024. We're coming home....

 

 

 

 

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firsttimer1971

firsttimer1971

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2 hours ago, RoundGuy2771 said:

 

Yes, if only the US had the population of The Netherlands, that would be great.

 

  
I think how smaller the country is, how bigger the need for fast passport processing.  My country is smaller than any one of the states in the Midwest so if we drive a couple of hundred kilometers we are at the border of either Germany or Belgium. And every citizen above 14 years old needs to be able to identify themselves with either a passport, (European) ID-card or driver's license. So fast issuance of passport/ID-cards is a real necessity. Almost all adults in The Netherlands have either a passport or  European ID-card. 


(Completely off-topic: there is a great website (https://www.thetruesize.com/) where you can select any country in the world (or state in the USA) and drag it across the map and see what its true size is compared to other places instead of the distorted size on our maps)

 

2 hours ago, RoundGuy2771 said:

We're 100% Dutch ancestry and can't wait for our cruise in 2024. We're coming home....

 

Oh, that's great, hope you enjoy your stay in The Netherlands. 

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