Passport Problems

For Christmas (knowing I would need one to travel to Europe) I asked Ben for a passport. My very first. We waited until after we got married and I changed my name on all of the necessary documents, then he bought me a tourist passport. I had it in my hands by March and thought I was ready to go to Germany.

Not so, it seems. For an OCONUS (outside of the contiguous United States) move, I need a visa passport, not a tourist passport. We found out that I had the wrong kind of passport about 10 weeks before our move date. There was some concern I might not receive the correct passport in time, and Ben talked to the passport office on base to see what might be done. They said not to worry, I could apply for the visa passport after school was over, use my tourist passport, and they would write a letter explaining that I had applied for my visa passport as a military dependent.

Then, last Monday, I had a day off school for the storm. It was suggested I use this time to go apply for the correct passport in hopes that we might still get it before the move. I filled out the paperwork, just the way they wanted me to, provided all the necessary documents, had my photos taken, handed over my tourist passport for identification checks and was told, “Usually, the dependent passports are processed faster than other passports, so you’ll probably have it back in time for the move.” I was happy that I had beat the storms, made it to base, and checked something off my list.

Then, last night, around 4:00 am, I woke up and realized I GAVE THEM MY TOURIST PASSPORT. They sent it off with the passport application and told me it would be sent back AFTER the visa passport was returned. This literally did not clock on my radar until a week after I applied. And now the government passport office has BOTH passports and I have NO passports.

So, friends, pray that there is an amazingly quick turnaround on this passport application process, because if there isn’t, Ben may be going to Germany without me until I can prove I’m allowed to go to Europe. I can’t believe I did something so stupid.