My daughter's official proof of application of passport showed up on the govt's web-site, 8 1/2 days after applying for it at the post office.
The page that comes up on the web-site is not very official looking. It looks like something anybody could fake on their home computer in under 5 minutes. I think my post-office receipt looks a lot more "official" than this document. But it does give you a confirmation number, they call the "passport application locator number." But I am wondering if customs cares what your confirmation number is. If they don't then, a person desparate to pass customs, could very easily fake this. No where on this document does it say that this is the so-called "Proof of Official Application for a U.S. Passport." The word "official" is not anywhere on it either. After having our trip ruined, and waiting 8 days, I was expecting some thing a little more professional than this. I give them a grade of "F" for this effort. I would like to add the word "lame," in there somewhere. I would like to add stronger words of disappointment like "shameful," but that would be inappropriate on this list. It is obvious that they were concerned about identity theft, they put little information on the document. Only the person's last name, and birth-date and last 4 digits of their social. Hopefully the folks at the airport have seen this print-out, and don't feel the need to scrutinize it. I wonder if you lost this print-out, could you get across with just your confirmation number? I "strongly feel" that the people who decided to post-pone the passport requirement, could have done a whole lot better job of informing the masses, and they should have not created this "extra step" of providing official proof of application. That is a big waste of time and money, when they could have put those employees to work processing the passports. I haven't seen this extra step detailed in the news anywhere, and I am surprised since it is affecting hundreds if not thousands of summer travellers. Maybe in my old age, I am just getting grumpier. DL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
