passport...quick-like

I often overhear a lot of people having a winge about the USA's efficiency. Well, my passport renewal proved otherwise. Here's why:

Posted it regularly in the post box (no expedite fee, etc) on Thursday, 22 Jan for next day delivery (Friday, 23rd). Monday was a public holiday (Australia Day). Got an email from the US Consulate in Sydney on Tuesday, 27th, about not having a self-addressed return envelope (I had used the Australia Post's new Two Way Express Post envelope...they obviously didn't realize it). I sent an email reply explaining how to use the 2-way envelope the same day.

They mailed the renewed passport (the fancy new [to me at least] kind with the RFID chip) on Friday, 30th (AusPost doesn't operate on Saturdays, unlike the USA), and we received the old and new passport in the post today (Monday, 2nd Feb). The date of issue stamped inside reads 27 Jan, so they processed it that day I suppose. How cool is that?!

I only know of one person who's had their passport renewed quicker....ok, a LOT quicker. 10 minutes in fact. We still to this day don't know exactly what he, a guy in our old Latter-day Saint ward in McLean, VA, USA, does for work (we're guessing CIA, but we never saw him drive through the front gate when we lived across the street from good ol' Langley - long ago absorbed into McLean - where we lived).

Anyway, he was telling us that one morning he found out he had to take a trip down to Guantanamo Bay, then realized his passport would expire while there, so went to some special area of the State Department in downtown DC, showed his passport and directive to the officer, they took it, and essentially however long it takes to print the thing and upload the data to the RFID chip is all it took and he was out the door ready to board the plane.

Connections in the right places are great to have (or you can just renew your passport overseas, close to a US embassy or consulate like I did :)