For those of you who do not know already, Farrah and I are in the midst of planning a trip to the UK and France. We’ll be going for a total of two weeks in May, hoping to beat the summer vacation rush. Our plans include visiting Bath and London, with a quick day trip to Paris!

It’s All Part of the Process (passports)

We started the passport process in mid-February, renewing our passports at the post office. Currently there is a 10 week waiting period in receiving the passport back. There has been a large rush in obtaining passports due to the new requirements when traveling to Mexico and Canada.

This is causing slight grief and anxiety on our part as the 10 weeks they are estimating to process passports falls only one week prior to our departure date in May! The US Passport web site allows you to check the status of your passport application - but this is not really helping. It shows Farrah’s passport has been accepted, but my passport application has yet to enter the system. Yikes!

From what I’ve read about this subject on the TripAdvisor message boards, passports have been arriving for people, but some have had to call to have their passports expedited (aka “Give us more money to grease the wheels!"). I’m not supposed to call until 14 days before the trip to have the passport expedited. I wonder if they FedEx it when it’s so close?

Oh well, can’t go on the trip without a passport, right?