passport questions

[rm]

I wrote about this in a ramble below, but I wanted to pull this out, make it clear, and see if anyone knew what to do.

I need to get a passport to go to Australia, also, I'd like to have ID in general.

As I don't have the required ID to do this painlessly, I need someone to accompany me to the passport office to fill out some forms and so forth. My mother has agreed to do this, so that's not a problem.

What is a problem is I can't seem to figure out how to get an appointment at said passport office. The phone system only takes appointments if you're travelling in less than 14 days. So what do I do if my situation is that I have to go in person, but don't want to wait until the last minute because it gives me anxiety? Is there a way to get an appointment?

I've read the website and listened to the phone messages dozens of times, and I can't figure any of it out.

Comments

Passport

[keith418.livejournal.com]

The Oakland City Hall has a passport office. Does the one in NYC? They might help. Just a thought.

Re: Passport

[rm.livejournal.com]

There is a speficic passport office in New York, but I can't get an appointment unless I'm travelling within 14 days, as that just weirds me out. Besides, as a general thing, I could really do with identification.

[sola.livejournal.com]

hm. well, at least in the Bronx, you just waltz in, fill out the papers, and wait in line. it's not unlike the DMV. you can make an appointment if you need the passport posthaste, as you say, but you don't need one just to get in the door. i can only assume it's the same there.


i had to go in person with my father, too, lacking any other kind of ID several years ago; he jjustsut did it recently, with an expired passport. now i have to go back to the DMV and do the same song and dance, since i let my walking license lapse by over a year. oops. (irritatingly, if you do get a non-driver's ID, it lasts for five years, but you always have to go in to renew it.)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Hrmmm, the website says I can only go in person if I have an appointment though. I've never felt so stupid. It's like, if I can't understand all this awful government how to normal people manage?

Perhaps I shall have to take my mother to the Bronx.

[sola.livejournal.com]

i know. it's like being blind and trying to navigate a rat maze on rollerskates. the gov'mnt says that most Official Passport Facilities are now only taking people by appointment, but the million other passport offices still take walkins, i presume.


anyway, here's the listing for the county clerk's office, which is where we usually go. it's easy to reach by subway: just take the 4/5/6 to 149th-grand concourse.

[sola.livejournal.com]

forgot the link: or you could just find one closer to you.

[splix.livejournal.com]

Post offices often deal with preliminary passport paperwork; you might just take your birth certificate and two passport-ready photos to one and take care of it there. It costs a lot more to get it expedited, so if you can do it well ahead of time, you're in good shape.

[rm.livejournal.com]

But as far as I can tell from the website, post offices won't deal with my particular situation, which is needing to have someone with me to swear to my identity.

Dammit, I know I speak English, why can't I make sense of any of this?

[nnp.livejournal.com]

i didn't need an appointment to get a passport. i just filled out the paperwork, sent them copies of the appropriate documents proving i was american, a passport photo and $$ to process it and they sent the damn thing back to me.

hm.

[oscillate.livejournal.com]

usually the cases in which you bring someone with you to swear to your identity are when you're abroad and are requesting a replacement for a lost or stolen passport. you don't need any other form of ID to get a passport the first time; you just need a birth certificate or consular report of birth abroad (naturalization certificate if not a natural-born citizen), social security card, and 2 passport photos. it's easier to do it at a post office than at an actual passport office.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Go ahead and make an appointment. If for some reason they call you on it, which they aren't likely to, just claim you were confused, which is the honest truth.

The Passport Office here handles walk-ins on a first-come first-serve basis, which still means lots of waiting, standing around with a number-ticket and waiting for them to call your number. Go with an appointment. Nobody will mind terribly and it will speed things up a lot for you and your mom both.

I had to get a passport a few years ago (strange enough in itself; I was used to the government insisting I have one) with absolutely no ID, since my purse was stolen. The Passport Office folks were very nice to me, even though I didn't have a blood relative with me and all I had for ID was a diplomatic passport from my childhood - three years old in the photo, and I don't look like that now. (I could have tried to go get a state ID instead, but this was when flying even domestic required picture ID, CA state ID takes a month to get, and my tickets were in ten days. I was panicked, but they were very nice and helpful.)

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

Have you had any luck with this? If not, I have the forms you'd need, along with the address of the place you need to bring the documentation for various ID points for a NY state license, along with your birth certificate (they require ID documentation- listed on the sheet- each of which has a value of one or more points- bills with your name on them, etc. Less complicated than it sounds, and the sheets lists them all.) Once you have that, it'll help you obtain your passport, as noted below.

Also, I have a passport application; the passport window wasn't open for me to confirm procedure with them, but when I got mine in 1997, it simply required two forms of photo ID (including NY STate, obviously), passport-size photo of yourself (anywhere in midtown, of course), and the application. If you have the NY State ID card, you _shouldn't_ (read: I didn't) need anyone to vouchsafe your identity. This was in 1997, though; YMMV.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the help, but that's incredibly irrelevant to my situation.

1. I don't drive
2. a non-drivers ID is _not_ accepted at the passport office
3. as such I still need to go with a witness
4. so none of this is relevant to me.