On August 11, my little brother is getting married. For several months now my wife, kids and myself have been making preperations for the trip.
Things get complicated because we live in Colorado, and my brother lives in Ontario, Canada. With the new travel restrictions, all travelers flying in to the USA are now required to have a passport, even when entering from Canada, wich had never had this requirement before.
We filed for our passports at the tail end of April. Mine was complicated because, being a native Canadian, I had to send for a canadian passport. I had to drive all over town getting photos done, and getting a guarentor to confirm my identity, while the rest of the family just had to wait in a short line at the post office.
Anyway, just last week... 2 weeks before the wedding, I got my passport application mailed back to me. It was rejected due to a small shadow under the ears... which I guess is how the terrorists get in. They also asked me to confirm if I was a US resident before 1975.
On the application there is a single checkbox that you check if you were a US resident before 1975, or you leave it blank if you weren't. I guess the fact I left it blank confused them, so they just wanted to clarify that I (who was born in 1977) was in fact not a us resident before 1975.
With my passport being rejected so late in the game, flying to Canada was no longer an option... so now I get to drive the 26 hour trip with 2 annoying kids in the back of my volvo station wagon.
Still... it's not so bad... road trips are fun in their own right.
Fast forward to today. The post office told us we would have the other 3 passports no later than Aug 2nd... which was yesterday.
So my wife called about the status.... and we won't be getting them any time soon.
Since ground traffic can still get into canada without a passport this wasn't a complete roadblock on the trip. However, my 2 kids don't have driver's licenses. The only form of ID they have is their birth certificates, wich, are required to be sent with passport applications.
My oldest son was born in South Dakota, so I can't just walk in to a couthouse and get a new copy of his birth certificate.
Thanks to the inefficiency of the passport agencies, I have to put all my faith in the US postal system, which is really not reassuring in any way. So I have about 6 days before I'm supposed to be leaving (my oldest is supposed to be the ring bearer so we have to be there early), and the status of my trip hangs in the balance.
I guess it's all for the best though.... I sure feel safer in America knowing we are safe from a terrorist moose invasion.
