Foo - Passports

Yay, I got my new passport today. As I'm a kiwi living in Australia I need a valid passport to stay in Oz. It just took 9 days to process my application & send it to me. The annoying things is that it is valid for only 5 years, whilst it use to be 10 years.

It wasn't that hard to sort out. The Justive of the Peace, who verified my identity, is a friend of a friend. Including passport photos it cost me around $180(Australian). And the NZ consulate was easy to find in Sydney.

The authorities must be getting tough with security. My new passport contains a integrated circuit chip & has watermarks (with images like a kiwi bird, silverfern & other stuff) on it's main page.

Im glad I've got it, as my passport is the only photo ID I've got. For the past week I've been without any formal ID, which is not a good thing.

What's your experience with getting passports?

Well, I just got my second navy blue US passport in last week. This one was easy since I had the number to my old one and other ID. I lost my old passport :mad: which had all sorts of stamps and an irreplaceable 10 year visa to India (which I have to reapply for and pay another $150 for). I was only 2 pages away from having to send it in to have more pages added:mad: That one was a rigamaroll to get since I had lost my wallet and any form of picture ID in it. I had to have a friend present to verify that I said who I said I was. They gave me the passport though.

Well, I just got my second navy blue US passport in last week. This one was easy since I had the number to my old one and other ID. I lost my old passport :mad: which had all sorts of stamps and an irreplaceable 10 year visa to India (which I have to reapply for and pay another $150 for). I was only 2 pages away from having to send it in to have more pages added:mad: That one was a rigamaroll to get since I had lost my wallet and any form of picture ID in it. I had to have a friend present to verify that I said who I said I was. They gave me the passport though.
Have you had a black or green US passport?

Have you had a black or green US passport?

Nope, I think the US Passports have always been navy blue, no?

Nope, I think the US Passports have always been navy blue, no?
Diplomatic passports are black, and for a while in the late 1990s some (I'm not sure if all) passport offices were issuing green passports to regular citizens.

I got mine about a year and a half ago; I was heading to Mexico and decided to finally get a passport. The one thing I learned --thanks to the kind lady at the passport office-- is those expedite services really only make a difference if you need it like in the next 48 hours. You can mark your application as urgent and you'll get it back pretty quickly just through the normal process. I got it in like 10 days. Smooth.

I got mine about a year and a half ago; I was heading to Mexico and decided to finally get a passport. The one thing I learned --thanks to the kind lady at the passport office-- is those expedite services really only make a difference if you need it like in the next 48 hours. You can mark your application as urgent and you'll get it back pretty quickly just through the normal process. I got it in like 10 days. Smooth.

Yeah, and you can go yourself to your regional State Department Passport Agency and do it without having to pay an expediter to do it for you.