|
Firstly, the song of the blog. + Show Spoiler +
Secondly,
WHAT THE FUCK?
If you read my last blog, which you probably didnt so get with the times dammit, I'm leaving for Korea this month to play Starcraft 2 at the godly god Superdanielman's PCBang with other nerds brave enough to travel to the Starcraft heartland.
Of course, months ago I stroll into the passport acceptance agency and talk with some cute blonde about getting my passport and she "ASSURES" me that just 2 forms of identification will get me my expedited passport in time for my projected time of departure.
Micro rant (not really) on saying "I assure you" + Show Spoiler +Listen bitch, when some jackass comes out and says "I ASSURE YOU" this and that you had better be fucking sure that shits going the way I want it to. In a functioning society where what people say actually means something and isnt entirely everyone blowing smoke up everyone else's asses, you saying that means "I GUARANTEE THAT THIS WILL BE APPROVED AND SENT TO YOU BY THE PROJECTED TIME".
It as fucking simple as you saying I don't have control over that and cannot guarantee it. THAT SIMPLE. IF YOU DONT FUCKING KNOW SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN, DONT SAY IT WILL HAPPEN. I already pay you 250 fucking dollars for a fucking pamphlet with my picture and some lines on it that takes 6 months to get to me but if I fucking want it in 2-3 weeks I need to pay you an extra 50 bucks to get it? Why in the fuck do you need this much time to process a folders worth of information.
A matter of national security blah blah blah. Any fuck can stick a bomb in his shoe and get by your overweight middle aged "employees" so dont fucking tell me you need 6 months to process something that should be a fucking 1 month affair at the maximum.
Well, even though I was hesitant about shipping away 2 forms of ID for my passport I said whatever she works here she must know...
Necessary rant. + Show Spoiler + "he/she must know what they're doing"
NEVER, EVER SAY THAT WHEN WORKING WITH A CIVIL SERVICE EMPLOYEE, YOU MUST BE A MORON LIKE MYSELF TO SAY THAT, THATS FUCKING LIKE SITTING IN THE BACK OF A CAB WITH SOME DOUCHEBAG DRIVING 85 MPH ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD AND SAYING TO YOURSELF... NO NEED TO BE WORRIED THERES HIS LICENSE ON THE MIRROR, HE MUST KNOW WHAT HES DOING
... but of course, she did not know. They never know, NOBODY KNOWS. Everyones so damn incompetent that they either dont know or do know but actually have no fucking clue. After weeks of waiting for my passport I get nothing but a phone call telling me I'm getting a wonderful form on it that will take twice as long as the last heap of shit to process.
Finally after waiting a few days I get the form and scan over it briefly only to notice that its government policy that I send in at least ***5(F)5(I)5(V)5(E)5*** forms of ID to them to ensure that I am in fact me. 2 forms of ID? I assure you, thats not even fucking close to what I actually need dipshit.
Oh well its all been sent off so my "expedited passport" should be here within the next 20-25 years.
Back to waiting, pzl8.
|
Where do you live? If you live near a big city it might be worth it to drive there, because you could get a passport same day if it's an emergency (I live in Chicago and I know it's done here). I never heard of the 5 forms of ID, pretty sure it's 2, but maybe it's 5 because you're mailing it in. Call around and find out, I would definitely make the drive as opposed to waiting.
|
People screw up. She thought it was 2 but it was wrong. You also screwed up by not double checking any sources.
Don't trust everything a cute girl says
|
don't want to come off as a dick in what is a frustrating situation for you, but when all the information for this type of thing can be found online, why didnt you just trust yourself to read online for all the information so you knew what was up before going in there the first time
|
What the hell, how do you even get five different ID's? I mean, who actually has that? You have your drivers license and possibly an ID card, what else?
Also, lol at this taking six months. Just got a new passport myself, took four days and costed me 40$. If you go to an airport you can get an emergency passport but I think you need some kind of excuse as to why. They cost a fuckton as well.
|
its just so damn easy to be overcome by a cute charismatic woman, sometimes i can help myself and for my additional ID's I sent in 7 forms of it. i just wanted to knock the damn thing out and get it done so i sent in every scrap of paper i could find.
|
On January 17 2011 09:30 Stenstyren wrote: What the hell, how do you even get five different ID's? I mean, who actually has that? You have your drivers license and possibly an ID card, what else?
Also, lol at this taking six months. Just got a new passport myself, took four days and costed me 40$. If you go to an airport you can get an emergency passport but I think you need some kind of excuse as to why. They cost a fuckton as well.
they described the time for use of an emergency passports as "life or death only" i dont think they go for some nerd flying to korea :p
|
This made me glad I live were I do. A passport and a visum is all you need over here. I was told that getting into China was going to be horrible and take ages. Took me 5 minutes at the Chinese embassy using nothing but my passport, an extra picture of me and a form that took 2 minutes to fill out and a letter from the guy I was going there to work for. That's it, they called me back 3 days later and I had a working visa for 6 months.
Why would you need 5 diffrent ones, if you are good enough to fake one of them, you'll be good enough to fake 5. : /
As for getting a passport all I had to do was go to the police show them my drivers license and they happily gave me a new passport : /
|
I don't know why you need five.. Seems excessive to me.
|
exactly, five forms of ID? five? five in my mind was just a bullshit arbitrary number they picked without actually considering how difficult and tedious it would be for the average honest fucking citizen trying to get out of the country.
|
lol i think its weird how we generally only care about things that come into the country rather than things that go out. Yet the visa process is such a pain in the ass. Its like who cares if we export guns/bombs outside of the country, we do that already anyways.
|
So you're getting upset because you can't get your Passport on demand? IMO, it's your own fault you don't have it ready ahead of time. The last time I traveled out of the country was 4 years ago, but I always renew my passport just in case.
I won't pretend to know what all goes into issuing a Passport, but if it helps to increase national security even just by .001%, I don't mind going through the trouble.
@Waffles: Even if that logic made sense (I guess we shouldn't care about killing people as long as it's not in the United States /endsarcasm), shouldn't be rather obvious that you are still on a plane with Americans, and potentially on connecting flights to other US destinations prior to leaving the country, and oh, I guess terrorists can't just hijack a plane and make it fly anywhere they want. Oh wait. (Okay, now I really /endsarcasm)
|
On January 17 2011 16:30 jacosajh wrote: So you're getting upset because you can't get your Passport on demand? IMO, it's your own fault you don't have it ready ahead of time. The last time I traveled out of the country was 4 years ago, but I always renew my passport just in case.
I won't pretend to know what all goes into issuing a Passport, but if it helps to increase national security even just by .001%, I don't mind going through the trouble.
@Waffles: Even if that logic made sense (I guess we shouldn't care about killing people as long as it's not in the United States /endsarcasm), shouldn't be rather obvious that you are still on a plane with Americans, and potentially on connecting flights to other US destinations prior to leaving the country, and oh, I guess terrorists can't just hijack a plane and make it fly anywhere they want. Oh wait. (Okay, now I really /endsarcasm) what im trying to say is that if there are terrorists/bad people going into the U.S. they should have already been stopped. Domestic flights dont require passports, only forms of some kind of state or federal ID which have soooo many counterfeits. so anyone can "just hijack" those.Im not debating whether or not US policy is right or wrong. I am just pointing out that its ironic that for a country that only cares mostly about things that go into it, it puts alot of extra security on passports and visas.
Secondly, not everyone knows ahead of time that they are going to leave the country, and not everyone can afford constantly renewing their passports if they travel very infrequently.some people are on a tight budget especially now a days,not everyone can always afford it. to alot of people i know that go to school, 75 dollars for just a renewal is 75 dollars too many.
Passports are rather troublesome in my experience and could be made more efficient, even with better security, efficiency is something that is very important. There has to be a balance and i guess OP is complaining about how it is not efficient for the amount of security it gives. obviously you would not want to go get a passport in 30 mins but have 0 security or have a passport that requires you to have them stalk you for the next 6 months and it takes another year to process for 99.9% security.
also, this is first time or for a long time that OP has traveled. oh look 500
|
Your first mistake was thinking that the "cute blonde" knew what she was doing.
Everyone knows hot girls = dumb. AND shes blonde... come on. You're probably better off just reading off of the passport application.
|
On January 17 2011 11:08 GT wrote: exactly, five forms of ID? five? five in my mind was just a bullshit arbitrary number they picked without actually considering how difficult and tedious it would be for the average honest fucking citizen trying to get out of the country.
I mean, how can you even HAVE five forms of ID ? I can't think of five. Driver's license, student ID, birth certificate... That's really all I can think of off of the top of my head.
|
IIRC when I got my passport renewed a couple years ago I only brought my state-issued ID, my birth certificate, my old passport, and possibly proof of residence (e.g. bills/statements to confirm my name/address). I did have to visit twice, once to get the necessary paperwork, once to submit everything. That's probably what they're sending you now =\. Paid the extra fifty bucks and got it in two weeks. Expensive, but my trip was only planned a month or so in advance, so there was no helping it. For my visa, I brought my passport and filled out some form with stuff like reason for visiting.
It does help that there's a post office that handles passport renewals a few blocks from where I live, so I could visit in person and not waste time with mailing things back and forth.
|
I just applied for a passport (my previous one was from before I was 16, so I had to apply for a completely new one) and all I needed was a birth certificate and driver's license. They keep the birth certificate to mail it in with your application but you get it back in the mail.
If you're just renewing an old passport you can do it through the mail instead of in person. Sorry for your inconvenience though, sounds like whoever took care of yours didn't know what they were doing.
|
On January 20 2011 02:10 Jonoman92 wrote: I just applied for a passport (my previous one was from before I was 16, so I had to apply for a completely new one) and all I needed was a birth certificate and driver's license. They keep the birth certificate to mail it in with your application but you get it back in the mail.
If you're just renewing an old passport you can do it through the mail instead of in person. Sorry for your inconvenience though, sounds like whoever took care of yours didn't know what they were doing.
if i recall correctly if you have a previous passport getting it renewed rather than a brand new one is much easier.
|
weird song for the rage contained in the OP
anyways yeah, all the red tape for stupid shit like this annoys the hell out of me
|
5 forms of ID? Let's see how many I can come up with
Driver's License Social Security Card Birth Certificate Tax Return Documents ...
That's all I can think of that EVERYONE would have. Of course there are always things like University ID's, military ID's, marriage certificate, maybe even credit card statements. And of course passports, but that doesn't really apply here. =P
I got my passport when I was a minor, so my dad did most of it for me...but I did not have to have five forms of ID. Seems pretty ridiculous.
|
|
|
|