[billnchristy]

When we got home from Thanksgiving, for some reason my wife decided to look at our passports again, thank God. My daughter's was expired because she got it under 16 and it was only good for 5 years. Panic ensued because we're leaving for Boston on the 22nd and Iceland on the 23rd.

There is a local passport office that can print them on the spot but they won't talk to you until 14 days out. IF you can get an appointment you go in and walk out with a passport.

They told my daughter to call on the 11th. We set up a regular expedited application (under 16 is not renewal, straight up new passport app) and got an appointment on the 28th.

I paid all the fees, expedite, express, and a money order (instant acceptance, no check clear time, in hopes it would get here in time. We also had the ace in the hole of the passport office within 5 days of travel if you already applied. I felt it was the best way and showed we tried to do it through normal means.

The application arrived on Dec 1, as promised and went into processing on the 2nd. The heart-stopping moment was when I realized that it went to TX for some reason, not Atlanta, and we made verbal arrangements to fly to TX to get it taken care of if it was necessary, there is no information on whether you have to go where your app is, or if you can go to the closest passport office so we just wanted to plan.

I got an email saying the passport was ready and would be shipped at about 2am on the 8th. It shipped the 11th and arrived the 12th.

Whoever took care of her passport, cheers mate, I have never seen a government activity with such a rapid turnaround.

We can all breathe a bit easier now!!