Embassy Experience

We had our appointment at the US Embassy for our daughter's passport, birth registration, and SSN this morning. The appointment was at 9:15am. We drove from Leeds and got stuck in traffic 3 miles from the embassy that took nearly 45 minutes to get through. We went to Gould Pharmacy to get her pictures and were (thankfully) in and out in less than 5 minutes, despite there being a lot of people there for photos. We managed to get to the embassy right at 9:15. There was no one at all in the citizens' line and only 3 people in the non-citizens' line. We waited in the citizens' line for about 3 minutes before going into the little security building and leaving our cell phone and going through screening.

After that, it was about a 5-minute wait to submit our documents and applications inside, and then another 45 minutes total before we were able to get the heck out of there. Although they kind of grilled me about where I grew up in the US, where I went to school, etc. which was weird. They said 2 weeks for her passport/registration and about 2 months for SSN. So we were out of there well before 11 (we stopped by the IRS office for a few questions and waited a while, but it was a million degrees in there with a long wait because they only have one guy there to help people so we left).

So really, not too bad at all. Our ride wound up parking right beside the embassy at a metered spot, which cost £9 (ouch!). The courier service via the embassy was £14.50 (the post office said they "don't do prepaid special delivery" per what the embassy web site suggests, so we were kind of stuck with it).

the post office said they "don't do prepaid special delivery" per what the embassy web site suggests, so we were kind of stuck with it

Weird.  I sent my passport off for renewal a couple of weeks ago, and my local post office sold me a prepaid special delivery with no trouble.  My guess is that's probably one of those things that they don't often do, so getting it depends on whether or not the person at the counter knows what you're talking about.

Anyhow, glad to hear it all went well. 

Yeah, I was a bit ticked off about that. My husband went to the post office twice for it. The first time they just gave him some sort of free envelope, and the second time he said all they could do was put stamps on an envelope for him  How much did yours cost? I really cringed when we had to pay £14.50 for that flimsy courier envelope.

...the second time he said all they could do was put stamps on an envelope for him  How much did yours cost?

That's all they did for me, too.  I brought a self-addressed envelope with me and told the guy I needed it to go special delivery with a weight of 500g.  He printed out the sticker and stuck it on the envelope, and I put that envelope into a slightly larger envelope that also had my passport application and old passport in it as instructed on the embassy website.  It was £4.95 (sorry!).

This is a guess, but I think what the Post Office could've done for you is put the special delivery sticker & stamps onto a self-addressed envelope for you, and you could've brought that with you to the embassy.  Hard to say why they didn't offer to do that for your husband.  I've found the PO in the UK is pretty much like the one in the US; sometimes you get someone who knows what they're doing, and sometimes you don't.

Wow, sounds like a relatively painfree experience. I'm glad to hear it! I hope it'll be that easy for when I have to go down.

That's all they did for me, too.  I brought a self-addressed envelope with me and told the guy I needed it to go special delivery with a weight of 500g.  He printed out the sticker and stuck it on the envelope, and I put that envelope into a slightly larger envelope that also had my passport application and old passport in it as instructed on the embassy website.  It was £4.95 (sorry!).

I've done this in the past as well. I stupidly didn't get the tracking number before I put it in the envelope, though, so I totally worried until I got my passport back.

Luckily we're not planning any travel any time soon, so it's not too big of a deal about how long it'll take/tracking, etc. Really, the only reason we bothered to do it all now was so I could get her a SSN to put on our taxes for this year, haha. But I'm glad we've got it all done so if we do wind up needing to travel, we won't have to worry.

Although we still need to get her British passport 

I stupidly didn't get the tracking number before I put it in the envelope, though, so I totally worried until I got my passport back.

I remembered to get the tracking number, and now that it's working day 16 - it's supposed to take approximately 15 - I'm obsessively checking it a couple of times a day. 

I'll ask the stupid question, since I need to go down and do this in the next few months - will my British spouse be able to go through the US citizens line with myself and my daughter, or am I going to have to send him through the feeeeeelthy foreigner line?

Yep, we all went through the citizens' line together They actually didn't even ask to see my passport or ID or anything until we were inside. Just the appointment letter to get in line and through security.

funny your experience was so different from mine.  I also had a 9:15 appt and spent hours waiting before all was done.  I didn't get out till around 1.  I was sooooo bored and LO was not so thrilled with it either as it went over her nap time.  

As for the special delivery, you do just put stamps on a self-addressed one, but you need to be able to tell them how much it will weigh. I had no problems with that.  I got DD's passport back in a week with no trouble at all.

I also had to show my passport multiple times--so funny that was different.  I got questions about where I went to school as well.  I'm guessing they wanted to see if I would falter if I wasn't legit.  The funny thing was my interviewer at the consulate had a sister-in-law who went to high school with me, so I didn't get any grief after that.  It was one of those small world moments.

Our experience was quite similar, got in and out very quickly for the most part. We were told if we waited another 10 mins that we could get her registration cert before we left so we waited for it.

For the postage, we just went to the post office and bought a special delivery envelope for 4.95. The lady working at the Embassy made sure we had it filled out properly and gave us the tracking number for it.

The only pain in the but for us was waiting to get inside the securtiy building. There was only one couple in front of us but because there were so many officials coming in, they get priority. They had to wait and go in as groups and they were all huffing and puffing.

Then there was this one guy behind us and he was so antsy to get in he actually pushed past my husband, very rude. He made it to line 1 before us and we heard some huffing from him and he left. We were sitting waiting and he was back in line again, a huge line by now and he was making faces and grunting again. I just thought serves him right for acting that way. Turns out his passport photo was wrong again, and he had to go back out the second time and get another photo and stand in line for a third time. You just can't rush these things.

We actually took the train down the evening before so we weren't in a rush. We felt so relaxed and had a nice dinner and then back home on the train again. I think we spent about 80 on the train for 4 tickets and 60 on a hotel so not bad.

We ended up having a meal at the rainforest cafe the evening before, but it was horrible. We ate there back in 2004 and loved it so wanted to take my youngest son. The food was way overcooked and the prices way too high. Will never go back.

And Gould's is where we got our photos from, cheap and accepted at the Embassy

I wish we could have taken a train! The best price I could find on such short notice was £280(!!) and it would have taken 6 hours to get down there (even though it's a 3.5-hour drive!) because of the time we needed to get there.

I just got my photos taken at a local shop rather than waiting and going in to the shops in London.  I highly recommend this to anyone.  Then you don't have to worry or panic that you won't find the right places in time.  I found that many of the photo places already knew the dimensions of a US passport, but the one closest to me didn't know them.  I had a printout of the photo page from the embassy webpage and they had no problem at all printing it to the correct dimensions.  They also cost a lot less than the places around London.

Yep, we all went through the citizens' line together They actually didn't even ask to see my passport or ID or anything until we were inside. Just the appointment letter to get in line and through security.

Thank you for answering my question! *grins*  I'm so panicked about this whole bloody thing, so much that I'm putting it off until late April/early May.  Well, and that's when the Chipotle opens... *whistles*

Cadenza - good idea!  The pharmacy downstairs says they do passport photos, and I'd rather do it here rather than have to do -anything- in London... besides eat at the Chipotle. 

No problem! I was totally stressing over it too, particularly the "getting there" part, haha. Really, using Gould Pharmacy across the street from the embassy was totally easy and painless (and only £5), but  I can definitely understand wanting to do it in advance too!