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Rush my passport denver12/30/2023 ![]() By 2:30 pm, I was fed, tanned, and actually ahead on my workload. Then I strolled over to a beach-front restaurant, where I ordered a salad, connected to the wifi, and got more work done. I used my cell phone hotspot to log on from the beach and laid out to tan while I filed my first story of the day. With several hours to kill, I grabbed my work laptop and headed to the beach. I was walking back to my hostel at 8:30 am. There were only about 10 people in front of me, so dropping off my paperwork, paying the renewal fee, and getting a 3 pm pickup appointment was seamless. I had all of my necessary documents and checked in. It was on the 15th floor of a stately government building. ![]() The next morning, I got up at 7 am, picked up a coffee, and made the quick walk to the acceptance facility. I got in on Tuesday at 11:30 pm, set my alarm, and immediately went to sleep in my little private room at the hostel. My appointment was at 8 am on Wednesday morning. I booked a flight that would arrive on Tuesday night and depart on Wednesday night. It was also only a 15 minute walk to the beach. I found a hostel that was only a 15 minute walk from the acceptance facility. So what did I decide to do with my hectic bureaucratic nightmare of my own making? I turned it into a 24 hour beach getaway. I did the math, and it was the only equation in which I would have a valid passport and be able to make my flight. I would be able to book a slot five days before my trip. The operator explained that the acceptance facility in San Juan almost always had available appointments for same day passport renewal. It was further away than Little Rock or New Orleans, but there were openings a full week earlier. I was begging: “Please, are there any appointments anywhere in the country that are earlier than May 11?” For the umpteenth time, the answering operator took pity on me. The 23rd time I called, I was at the point of tears. I was surprised the Department of State hadn’t blocked my number and felt fortunate that being annoying wasn’t a criminal offense. Even if the entire American air travel infrastructure weren’t in shambles, this was an impossible timeline. Both would require me taking a flight the night before my trip to Rome and praying to the airport gods that Newark International Airport would have no delays.Īt the edge of lunacy, I made an appointment for 8 am in New Orleans on the day of my flight from NYC to Rome. My two closest options were in New Orleans, Louisiana and Little Rock, Arkansas. There weren’t even any on the East Coast. But-and again this came as no surprise to me because of my own reporting about the delays in renewing passports-there weren’t any available appointments in the tri-state area. I qualified for an Urgent Renewal appointment, which meant I could get a same day renewal within 14 days of my planned travel. She recommended just calling over and over again, until I could make one at an acceptance facility near me. Yet another tried to console me and talked me through the tedious process of calling the Department of State’s appointment hotline. One woman at a commercial expediting service laughed at me over the phone. I had three weeks, and I naively hoped that it would be enough time to get the task done. Scrambling, I began calling expedited renewal services all over New York City, searching for appointments at acceptance facilities in the Northeast. Except I suddenly needed to be in Rome on May 11 for a work trip. ![]() I figured I could get it taken care of in April when I got back. I had a trip planned in April, and based on my own reporting, I knew I wouldn’t have time to renew my passport beforehand. I started carrying my passport everywhere in 2021, feeling no need to rush and get my ID renewed-my passport wouldn’t be expiring until May 2022. No amount of planning could’ve prepared me for a world so unpredictable. Yet, after pandemic restrictions began to lift and travel became an option, my Type A personality seemed to disappear. My trips had excel sheets organized by day, neighborhood, and price. Before the pandemic began, I was a meticulous planner.
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