Passport woe
Yes, I should be in the State of California but I ain't; I'm in rainy and cool Dublin, fixing the problem of not having a 'machine-readable passport.
So when I turned up at the heaving Dublin airport at 7AM on Sunday, I was ejected unceremoniously from the queue. Somehow, in spite of telling lots of people over the past years to check the position of visa requirement before turning up at the airport, I had completely omitted to take my own advice. My old pre-2000 passport was not equipped with the chevrons and there was nothing I could do on Sunday, to remedy the want.
Bright and early, the rainy morning finds me waiting outside the cement block that is the British Embassy. But the passports now demanded by Americans are so hi-tech that they cannot be 'built' on-site, so they have to go elsewhere to be constructed: minimum time - 2 weeks. We (because I was not alone in my foolishness)were sent up to the American Embassy to demand emergency visas. Without much hope we went and after queueing for some time, with US Citizens inserting themselves at the head of the line whenever they turned up, we were then sent off to Jury's Hotel, who were used to this palaver. We filled in forms online and printed them out, eventually. Then down to a pharmacy who took the requisite photographs, digital not kiosk and I hared back to the embassy just before lunch and presented the paperwork to an official, having been through the security checkpoint and been festooned with labels to identify me as a genuine applicant.
Seeing the other applicants emerging with the sad news that they had to wait 3 more days, I was not very hopeful, but after payment of €80 and a few searching questions about my American husband and children, my green card etc., I was told that I could collect it at 3pm.
Wow - let's hear it for the US Embassy boys and gals! So now I am off to Americay in the morning for my 3-week vacation, now reduced by 2 days and will be able to see what my female offspring is getting up to over there + meet friends not seen for years. Phew!!
Stress or what? The photo says it all - but I am not going to produce it here - even if I could.
So when I turned up at the heaving Dublin airport at 7AM on Sunday, I was ejected unceremoniously from the queue. Somehow, in spite of telling lots of people over the past years to check the position of visa requirement before turning up at the airport, I had completely omitted to take my own advice. My old pre-2000 passport was not equipped with the chevrons and there was nothing I could do on Sunday, to remedy the want.
Bright and early, the rainy morning finds me waiting outside the cement block that is the British Embassy. But the passports now demanded by Americans are so hi-tech that they cannot be 'built' on-site, so they have to go elsewhere to be constructed: minimum time - 2 weeks. We (because I was not alone in my foolishness)were sent up to the American Embassy to demand emergency visas. Without much hope we went and after queueing for some time, with US Citizens inserting themselves at the head of the line whenever they turned up, we were then sent off to Jury's Hotel, who were used to this palaver. We filled in forms online and printed them out, eventually. Then down to a pharmacy who took the requisite photographs, digital not kiosk and I hared back to the embassy just before lunch and presented the paperwork to an official, having been through the security checkpoint and been festooned with labels to identify me as a genuine applicant.
Seeing the other applicants emerging with the sad news that they had to wait 3 more days, I was not very hopeful, but after payment of €80 and a few searching questions about my American husband and children, my green card etc., I was told that I could collect it at 3pm.
Wow - let's hear it for the US Embassy boys and gals! So now I am off to Americay in the morning for my 3-week vacation, now reduced by 2 days and will be able to see what my female offspring is getting up to over there + meet friends not seen for years. Phew!!
Stress or what? The photo says it all - but I am not going to produce it here - even if I could.
posted by ruth @ 11:27 AM
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