In Tears...

S

scrapperjade

New member
Maybe I'm overeacting, but I've been tearing up and crying since 8 this morning!

I posted a while ago about trying to get our passports to visit Oregon this summer, and how I've had trouble because DH forgot to sign a couple things. Well I got that straightened out, and we got our passports FINALLY. I signed mine, Ava's info was filled out (but NOT signed). DH goes to sign his, and his pen skipped. Like majorly skipped. Half his signature didn't write.

So I panicked and called the passport office this morning asking what we should do. The answer? We have to RE-APPLY for DH's passport - meaning new photos, waiting in line, paying another $87 for it. I was mad and swore at the guy (he was SUPER rude though). So I called back so I'd get a different agent. Told her the story, and much to my embarrassment - started crying on the phone! She was super nice, and gave me the numbers for US and Canada Customs. So I called THEM, and they confirmed that it wouldn't be accepted. So I was taking deep breaths, and trying not to cry, but the Canadian Customs guy said that I shouldn't have to re-apply, but that the passport was "damaged" and the g'ment should be able to just re-issue on for free.

SO I called DH in tears, and told him I was in no condition to make any more calls. He came home and called Passport Canada (again), and told them the story (again), as well as what the customs officer said. Thankfully, the woman he got was SUPER NICE and will be making some phone calls to see what she can do for us. I'm waiting for a call now.

I ****HOPE**** we don't have to re-apply and pay for it all over again because his pen skipped! It's not like it was his fault! Beyond frustrating. I know its childish to cry over, but its $100 we don't have, and this whole passport application has been a nightmare since March. I was so relieved to be done with it, and now we have to wait even longer, and possibly start over for DH.

Someone send me some chocolate - or perhaps something a little stronger!
 
Oh Jae....I'd have been bawling too!!!! I really hope the stars aline and it all works out and QUICKLY!!!! Keep us posted!!!! ((((HUGS))))
 
scrapperjade said:
Maybe I'm overeacting, but I've been tearing up and crying since 8 this morning!

I posted a while ago about trying to get our passports to visit Oregon this summer, and how I've had trouble because DH forgot to sign a couple things. Well I got that straightened out, and we got our passports FINALLY. I signed mine, Ava's info was filled out (but NOT signed). DH goes to sign his, and his pen skipped. Like majorly skipped. Half his signature didn't write.

So I panicked and called the passport office this morning asking what we should do. The answer? We have to RE-APPLY for DH's passport - meaning new photos, waiting in line, paying another $87 for it. I was mad and swore at the guy (he was SUPER rude though). So I called back so I'd get a different agent. Told her the story, and much to my embarrassment - started crying on the phone! She was super nice, and gave me the numbers for US and Canada Customs. So I called THEM, and they confirmed that it wouldn't be accepted. So I was taking deep breaths, and trying not to cry, but the Canadian Customs guy said that I shouldn't have to re-apply, but that the passport was "damaged" and the g'ment should be able to just re-issue on for free.

SO I called DH in tears, and told him I was in no condition to make any more calls. He came home and called Passport Canada (again), and told them the story (again), as well as what the customs officer said. Thankfully, the woman he got was SUPER NICE and will be making some phone calls to see what she can do for us. I'm waiting for a call now.

I ****HOPE**** we don't have to re-apply and pay for it all over again because his pen skipped! It's not like it was his fault! Beyond frustrating. I know its childish to cry over, but its $100 we don't have, and this whole passport application has been a nightmare since March. I was so relieved to be done with it, and now we have to wait even longer, and possibly start over for DH.

Someone send me some chocolate - or perhaps something a little stronger!
Click to expand...

That is flat out ridiculous! ...and I'm curious...why do you have to have a passport to go from Canada to the USA? When we went from the USA to Canada (just for 24 hours but they didn't know that at the border)...we just had to have our drivers license and the kids' birth certificates...but they didn't even CHECK the papers!!! This was in 2004.

{{{hugs}}} hope you get good news today!
 
Sharon Kay, you do need a passport to get into the US now, even via vehicle. We did birth certificates when we went in 2005, but you can't do that anymore for grown ups, but you can for kids under 16 I believe.

Jae, I'm so sorry this is such a nightmare! I hope the get it all figured out, it doesn't make sense to make you have to pay it all over again.
 
I'll have a drink with you on the OR coast ;) I hope it gets all straightened out and I can realte, $100 iis $100 and since you already paid that fee, that shouldn't be something you have to pay again...
 
Man oh man, I'm sorry about this. I do hope they come through for you guys and you don't have to re-do everything and pay MORE money. Geesh. :(

Hmmm, I didn't know that you HAD to have the passports. I have been bugging my hubby to take me to Niagra Falls - does this mean we will have to get passports to go into Canada now???
 
meganmecrazy said:
Man oh man, I'm sorry about this. I do hope they come through for you guys and you don't have to re-do everything and pay MORE money. Geesh. :(

Hmmm, I didn't know that you HAD to have the passports. I have been bugging my hubby to take me to Niagra Falls - does this mean we will have to get passports to go into Canada now???
Click to expand...

No, not to get into Canada, but you do to get back into the US.
 
Aww sweetie! You've not overeacting. My sister had this problem when getting her passport. You just want everything to go smoothly and why should you have to pay for it all over again because of the pen malfunction?
 
Sharon - the US/Canada border has been tightening since Sept 11, 2001. The Canadian government had been giving leeway to getting through the border up until this year, but they implemented a "No exepetions" rule. As of June 1, 2009, a Canadian MUST have their passports to visit the US. It's just about the security - of knowing who is passing through the border.
 
Yeah, the tightening of security is on the US side...

Jae...hopefully they fix that up, that's so stupid! The government can be so stupid sometimes...
 
Well, a super super nice woman called back from Passport Canada. And unfortunately, there is nothing they can do. We have to re-apply. I'm ready to vomit.

And what the worst is that we live in a tiny hick town an hour from the passport office as well as the nearest place to get the photos taken. Our gaurantor lives here. So that means we have to make the trip into the city, get our photos taken, then drive BACK here, get our gaurantor to sign it and a new application, then drive BACK to the city to file it.

NOT IMPRESSED.
 
That's awful Jae, I'm so sorry.

Is there any way the guarantor could go with you, so you'd only have to make the trip once?
 
I have heard that we need them to travel from the US to Canada now too...and if not now, it will be very soon! Here to Mexico too, where we used to just drive over.

I'm so sorry to hear about your troubles with getting your passports. Hopefully it will all get worked out.
 
Why can't he just get a pen and sign over top of where it didn't show up before? I totally would have just done that and not even thought about it. Weird.
 
lovely1m said:
Why can't he just get a pen and sign over top of where it didn't show up before? I totally would have just done that and not even thought about it. Weird.
Click to expand...

LOL! This is what I was wondering too! I wouldn't even have thought twice to just redo it.
 
Oh, man, I'm so sorry, Jae! :( All the nitpicky stuff with the passports is a huge PITA. My friend was in tears multiple times trying to get her most recent passport. She and her husband live and work in the US, and as a huge trip to the Galapagos Islands with her parents was approaching she realized her passport was going to expire a couple months after the trip and that they could technically deny her entry. They won't do rush orders to a US address, and they wouldn't let her send it to my address. Then they said they couldn't find it and because she'd called to inquire about rushing it the application had been flagged and was elsewhere... she kept getting shuffled from clerk to clerk and different stories from each of them. She about had a nervous breakdown dealing with it!

I really need to get off my butt and re-new mine so that I'm not panicking to do it when I do actually need it.
 
scrapperjade said:
Well, a super super nice woman called back from Passport Canada. And unfortunately, there is nothing they can do. We have to re-apply. I'm ready to vomit.

And what the worst is that we live in a tiny hick town an hour from the passport office as well as the nearest place to get the photos taken. Our gaurantor lives here. So that means we have to make the trip into the city, get our photos taken, then drive BACK here, get our gaurantor to sign it and a new application, then drive BACK to the city to file it.

NOT IMPRESSED.
Click to expand...

crap crap and double crap!!!! :glare: I'm so sorry Jae!!! (((HUGS)))
 
Oh man what a pain! I feel for you. I hate dealing with trying to get passports for all 5 of my kids and my husband and I we just had to renew the kids' this year ugh nightmare I tell ya. And the whole crossing over back and forth between US and Canada such a bigger pain these days too. So sad we have to go through that crap.
 
So I'm back from the city. We took my mom as our gaurantor (THANK GOODNESS they've relaxed about family being able to sign - about the ONLY thing that was good news today!). We had to do the whole thing - $13 for new photos, and $87 for the new passport. But its done and his replacement is being processed now.

The STUPID part is that I told him to just sign over top of where the pen skipped, but he thought it might look like he forged it. So instead, I told him to just cross out the screwed up one and re-sign beside it. That was a big mistake - that is what effectively voided his passport. If he'd just have done the sign over top, it would have been fine. Kicking myself and more tears aren't going to change that, so I'm just going to let it go, hard as it is.

I've got a big Kahlua & milk sitting here - thats helping, lol!
 
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