Passport Headaches

So my wife and I are going to Puerto Aventuras on April 15 for a much needed 6 night all inclusive vacation away from the kids. We are staying at the Catalina Riveria Maya. Anyways because of the new passport regulations we have to have one or we blow our money. The trip is 8 weeks and 3 days away as of yesterday when I go to get our passports. I’m told by the clerk of courts in Clermont County that it’ll take 6-8 weeks to get our passports, talk about cutting it close. You can have it expedited but I decline. I ended up sending an email to the Department of State making sure I’ll get it on time. The response I get is below:

Applications are normally completed within six to eight weeks. Due to the high volume of applications this may take longer. If you need your passport sooner and did not expedite at the time of application, please call the toll free number listed below. The additional fee is $60 and can be paid by credit card over the phone.
Please re-submit periodically for a status check by completing the status form at our website at http://travel.state.gov/passport/about/npic/npic_896.html

Now I’m worried, I’m going to wait until March 7 to get it expedited.

I’m totally for homeland security and such but this thing is going to hit my wallet:

1. $97 x 2 for regular passport
2. $60 x 2 for expediting
3. = $314.00 to be able to leave my country and return.

For a taxpaying citizen like myself shouldn’t this be included?

And exactly what does a Passport tell us? An official birth certificate (which in some states anyone can obtain for anyone) has the same name of a drivers license. I sure hope the department of State has other measures of verifying other data on the application.

Written by Tim on February 14th, 2007 with 10 comments.
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