Tip for US passport renewal interview

We renewed our son's US passport for the first time today.  This is the one where you need to bring progressive photos.

So when it was our turn at the window, the vice-consul asked us a few questions and then wanted to speak to our son.  Then he started going through the progressive photos asking him questions like 'Who's that?'  'Do you remember this?' and so on.  And our son was answering 'I don't know'.  'I never saw them before' and stuff like that.

Our son thought it was a joke, and that's because he thinks *EVERYTHING* is a joke.  So he was buggering about with the answers, and possibly nearly blew it for us.

When he got to the photo of him and the cat, the vice-consul asked him the cat's name and he answered it correctly and then launched into a story about the cat.  So finally the vice-consul was satisfied.

So my advice is that you should tell your 5 or 6 year old when you take them for a new passport, that when the man asks questions, it's not a joke.

Oh my word Garry!  Your heart must have just hit the floor!  Thank heavens for the cat!

Thanks for understanding!

Plus he speaks with a very  *pronounced* Estuary which I'm sure standard Americans find unbalancing anyway.

The other thing I forgot to point out is the same crap I pointed out 5 years ago when we got his first US passport.  

Buy the envelope at the reception desk before you go to window 1  Otherwise the person at window 1 will send you back to reception to get an envelope and BAM you're back to square 1.  It's lunacy.

And humiliating for me because I forgot my own advice.  

I'm just hopeful that by the time we have to sort out DD's 2nd US passport we'll be back in the US to do it....but I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks for the tips Garry. 

Thanks for understanding!

Plus he speaks with a very  *pronounced* Estuary which I'm sure standard Americans find unbalancing anyway.

The other thing I forgot to point out is the same crap I pointed out 5 years ago when we got his first US passport.  

Buy the envelope at the reception desk before you go to window 1  Otherwise the person at window 1 will send you back to reception to get an envelope and BAM you're back to square 1.  It's lunacy.

And humiliating for me because I forgot my own advice.  

We all do things like that.  Do you mean an envelope to deliver the passport?  I didn't have to buy anything when I went last year with DD, but I had brought a recorded delivery envelope prepaid with me from home.

What is all this 'progessive photo' stuff??!!  We have an appointment on Tuesday to get our 10 year old daughter's new US passport.  From reading the website, it looks like the progressive photo thing is only required for 5 yr olds??

If their first passport was issued before the age of 5 then you need to have a photo progression to show that the child before them is the same child in the old passport.

From the US Embassy in London:

Photo age progression - Passport renewals for children whose most recent passport was issued under the age of 5 should present photo age progression from the age in the previous passport to the present age. 

If their first passport was issued before the age of 5 then you need to have a photo progression to show that the child before them is the same child in the old passport.

From the US Embassy in London:

I think this is part of the whole 9/11 hysteria that had the Americans going off the rails way over the top for a while.  Like that garden shed they had on Upper Grosvenor Street serving as a forward entry point.  Humiliating and ridiculous.  You just have to grin and bear it.

OK, back from the Embassy.  No need for progressive photos as our daughter's passport was issued when she was 6.

Had a big panic when I couldn't find the consular report of birth abroad certifcate, but they accepted alternative documentation (as set out on the web site).

To be honest, the whole trip to the Embassy thing stresses me out - all those guns and security, it is quite scary and sad that it is deemed necessary.  Anyway, it's OK once you are in the building and the staff are quite pleasant.

They don't put embarrassing and humiliating armed camps in Beverly Hills.  Or Foggy Bottom.  Or the the upper West side.  Or the Galleria.  Or the Strip.  Or Fishermans Wharf.  Or Peachtree Street...   

But they do it in London's Mayfair.  Why? 

The whole operation needs to be moved to the burbs... 

It's an embarrassment.