In May, 33-year-old Paula Knight was preparing for a family trip to Mallorca. She, her husband, and her 11-year-old daughter realized that they needed to renew their passports before traveling in early July. And her eight-month-old son didn’t have it at all.
She first contacted a private passport explorer in her hometown of Austin, Texas, but after paying over $ 500 in the hope of getting a passport within a few days, she went into the process 5 ~ For 7 weeks, she had to deliver the documents to her passport office by herself.
However, all local passport offices required reservations and were well booked for months. The nearest passport office that booked the carry-on is two hours away in Lampasas, Texas, and she drove twice to process her family documents and send them to the State Department.
A month later, she realized that the paperwork could be missed. So Knight began calling the National Passport Center’s reservation line every morning, hoping to secure a reservation for the day at a US passport agency. She called for a week and waited for her hold. Each time, I was told that Hawaii was the only reservation available nationwide.
“There is a government passport agency in Houston. This is a two hour drive for me. There is one in Dallas and it takes five hours by car, but I was able to do that too,” she said. rice field. “But nothing is available. I feel pretty helpless against all of that. I’ve done everything I’ve been told and I’ve been doing it since early May.”
Knight finally made a reservation at El Paso, an 11-hour drive. She delayed her family trip by four days to accommodate her reservation, chose not to drive that long distance with her baby, and got $ 800 to the hotel so that herself, her husband, and her two children could make the reservation. Spent $ 1,600 on airfare before she left for Spain. In early July, her family’s passport arrived by mail in just a few days, eventually eliminating the need for same-day bookings. (They received credit for the canceled flight and a refund for the hotel room.)
