I posted awhile back about getting our Military No-Fee Passports while Mr. B was home on R&R, the time has finally arrived for us to get our civilian passports, so we went this week! I wanted to do it this week since the kids and I were off for Spring Break and I’d have everyone at the same place and time to make it a bit easier.
This time Mr. B was not with us so I knew there were some extra steps that needed to be taken in order for me to get the passports for the kids, well for the younger two…Boo was a bit different…
First things first, since I knew there is a requirement to have both parents present for the passports I had to figure out what we needed to do since that was NOT possible. Mr. B is back playing in the sandbox and he’ll return with only 6 weeks until we PCS. Sure we could have done them then and had them expedited but we’ll be en-route visiting family and I’d rather be safe than sorry and get them done early. I found that if both parents cannot be present you can use the Form DS-3053, which is the second parent’s notarized statement of consent. I emailed the form to Mr. B and he filled it out, had it notarized, and then mailed it back to me. A quick note about the mail from the sandbox, they offer something called Free Mail for letters for those deployed. This means that they can mail letters home for free BUT as a friend of mine found out when she was waiting on her notarized consent to arrive, Free Mail often equals SLOW mail! So I had Mr. B put it in a padded envelope and pay to mail it back to me, because even with the paid mail it takes about 2 weeks to get here to Alabama. He mailed it the first week of March and we had it just in time for Spring Break 🙂
Also note that the Form DS-3053 is ONLY needed for minors under the age of 16. Boo is 16 years old and did not need the form filled out. He was able to sign his own passport and provide his own ID card as photo ID proof. Kids under 16 get passports that expire in 5 years and they have to re-apply (no renewal). Kids 16 years and older as well as adults get passports that expire in 10 years and then you can do an renewal form next time, which is a bit cheaper.
Also another IMPORTANT thing is that WITH the Form DS-3053 you will also need a copy of the front and back of your spouses’ ID card. And it has to be 2 separate scans because you have to print 1 side (i.e. front) on one page and the other side (i.e. back) on another page. Mr. B did NOT closely read the emails I sent when requesting this info and sent both scans together on 1 page. He then had to go back into work later that night (after I woke up here and seen it) to rescan and send the ID again. Again since Boo is 16 he did not need Mr. B’s ID, just a copy of his own ID, and a copy of mine to verify that I was providing the parental consent. So I printed out 2 copies of Mr. B’s ID (4 pages total/front 1 page & back 1 page), 4 copies of my ID (8 pages/front 1 page & back 1 page), and 1 copy of Boo’s ID (2 pages/front 1 page & back 1 page). This also saved us time at the Post Office because she did not have to take the time to make all these separate copies for us.
We also had our passport photos already done and ready to take with us. When we got our No-Fee Passports we were able to get extra copies for the civilian passports. I brought them home that day and immediately put them in the PCSing file folder so I’d be able to quickly find them later. If you don’t have passport photos you can get them done at the the time of the application but it is around $12 each person! (And those who know me know I’m too cheap for that, LOL!) You can also do the photos yourself, following these guidelines from the US Gov Passport site. Or you can go to somewhere like CVS and get them done for around $7, they do it on the spot and you can walk out the door with them in minutes and take with you.
Then I went to the same US Gov Passport website and filled out the exact same forms as the ones we used for the No-Fee ones except this time I marked that we’d never had a passport issued before since we’ve never been issued civilian passports. I had to do this 4 times, once for each person, and it was a bit time consuming! Thankfully I printed off a copy of the forms I used for the No-Fee applications and stored it in our PSCing file folder, that way I easily had all the information at my fingertips without having to go dig out all the kids social security numbers, etc. So now I had 4 printed copies (6 pages long each!) of the application one for each of us.
Next I had to figure out where I was supposed to go to get the passports, I knew it was a post office in Montgomery but I wasn’t sure which one so I went to the Passport site and used their locator because I did not want to end up running around to several places to find the right one! I also realized that they were closed for an hour each day so I made sure to time my trip for as soon as they opened after the lunch break.
Then I grabbed everyone’s birth certificate, including mine. This time we WOULD be sending them away with the passport application unlike the last time. If you’ve never had a passport done before you have to send your birth certificate with it, if your renewing as passport the birth certificate is not needed…with the exception of kids under 16. There is no renewal for them (which the family in front of us misunderstood) and they do have to have their birth certificate sent every time until they turn 16 and get the 10 year passport. So for example Bub’s will expire when he is 17, we will then have to go apply for a new one and send his birth certificate again but then it will be good for 10 years and his birth certificate will no longer be needed to renew it. Bea’s will expire when she is 14 so we’ll have to apply for a new one and send it again AND then again at 19 when it expires we’ll have to apply for a new one again and resend it, then it’ll be good for 10 years and no longer need the birth certificate. Confusing huh?!
We arrived at the Post Office at 5 minutes before they were to open (1 pm) and there were 2 people ahead of us. You had to sign in and they called people from the list. Thankfully we just beat the family of 4 that walked in after us 😉 They were about 10 minutes late opening and unfortunately for the family in front of us they did not bring their daughter’s birth certificate and were unable to get the passport done. The next guy was called and his took a bit longer since he needed a photo taken as well.
It was finally mine turn and I get up to the counter and pull out my packed folder of info. The lady comments on how prepared I am and I tell her I’m just trying to make the process as easy as possible, both for her and for me. Even with me being super prepared it still took us almost an hour to get all the passport applications turned in and paid for! I felt bad for the family behind us but I can’t control how fast the process is, just imagine how long it would’ve took if we needed photos and I didn’t have all the copies already made…
So here’s a breakdown of what I had to turn in by person:
Me (adult & first time applicant) – Application form that I printed from online…but it had printed wrong and cut the top off so I had to RE-FILL out another form while she was processing the kids, ugh note to self to check the printing next time!
Show my ID to clerk and copy of my ID (2 pages, front 1 page, back 1 page)
2 Passport Photos
And I had to sign the application in front of her
Boo (16 years old) – Application printed from online.
Show his ID to clerk and copy of his ID (2 pages, front 1 page, back 1 page)
Copy of my ID (2 pages, front 1 page, back 1 page)
2 Passport Photos
And He had to sign the Passport form and then I had to sign on the 2nd line
Bub (12 years) – Application printed from online.
Form DS-3053 signed & notarized
Copy of husband’s ID (2 pages, front 1 page, back 1 page)
Show my ID and copy of my ID (2 pages, front 1 page, back 1 page)
2 Passport photos
And I signed the application
Bea (9 years) – Application printed from online.
Form DS-3053 signed & notarized
Copy of husband’s ID (2 pages, front 1 page, back 1 page)
Show my ID and copy of my ID (2 pages, front 1 page, back 1 page)
2 Passport photos
And I signed the application
Whew that was a LOT of work! Then after it was all filled out I was walked over to another clerk to pay. She rechecked all the forms, filled out another section and charged me $481.20. The adult passports were $110 plus a $25 processing fee ($135) and the kids were $80 plus a $25 processing fee ($110) and the $1.20 was for a Money Order for the $380 that was stapled to the applications and mailed with them.
Now we wait the 4-6 weeks for our Passports to arrive in the mail and for our birth certificates to be returned via mail (in a separate envelopes) as well. Can’t wait to get them back and for us to get headed to Italy!
While we’re PCSing to Italy, we plan on traveling all over Europe while we are there!
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