05-JUL-B-4
THE SCRAMBLE NEAR TAKEOFF TIME FOR VISAS
—WITHOUT EVEN SO MUCH AS A PASSPORT—
NOT YET BEGUN IN PROCESSING THREE WEEKS
AFTER CASHING THE SECOND CHECK FOR ITS RENEWAL,
NOW IN A LAST DITCH EFFORT TO GET IT BY
SATURDAY
FEDEX DELIVERY FOR TAKEOFF ON SUNDAY
July 20, 2005
I called the US Passport agency, to say my mailman
had just called to say there is no [passport for me in today's mail. I had sent it in June first for renewal. They
returned it saying that the fee had been raised and I would need to add more
funds. I did so.
They said that they only received it for processing
on July 7th. "How come my bank
statement reports that the second check was cashed June 30?"
Oh, yes, that!
Well we can send an email asking that they pull it out of the queue and
express deliver it for a couple hundred dollar expedited fee to see if it can
be delivered on Saturday morning (I fly out on Sunday)--which means I go to the
Eritrean embassy tomorrow with everyone else's passport but mine, for whci I have only a promissory note--and no guarantees that
it will be here on Saturday even without visas!
Why, if they can simply issue it with an email, does
it have to lie in a desk for three weeks after they have cashed the second
check and wait a few more weeks before putting it together?
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