It couldn’t have been easier, this final part of my in person Passport Renewal Process. Part 1 involved filling out online forms and making an appointment with an automated phone scheduler (that was, by the way, broken the day I used it) to visit the Passport office in Los Angeles. Part 2 involved a wait 3 times longer than I expected and lots of lines and security.  So I was a little worried that Part 3, collecting my passport, would be no where near as easy as it should be. Would they be late in finishing my passport? Would the have lost my old passport that had my current and still valid visas? Would they make me pass a citizenship test (which I’d surely fail) before I could get it back?  Luckily none of these things came to pass.

I was told the passport office opened at 7:00 AM, so to beat the crowds and make sure I’d make it in to work on time, I planned to be there at 6:59 AM.  Of course I got there closer to 7:20, but for me, who is always running late, that’s not so bad.  As I approached the first officer, who’d been there on my previous visits, I was prepared to explain why I was there and then proceed to the security clearance/x-ray area.   But instead of pointing me to the door leading inside, he pointed across an open patio to two “Will Call” windows. No need to go through security and questioning again…could it really be this easy?

It was really that easy – no lines, no hassle

Yes! In deed it was. Just walked up to the will call, waited behind the two people ahead of me and within 5 minutes I was handed an envelope with both my new and old passport.  Everything looked good, they even remembered to include the extra pages in my new passport.  The whole process including the walk from the parking lot took about 9 minutes.

Old and New

So now I have a shiny, new passport and an old, well-loved passport waiting to take their first trip together. Actually I’ll only take the old one on trips to Brazil since my valid visa is still in that one. Otherwise it will sit in my beside table with the original passport I got for my first trip out of the country, when I went to Tokyo.  Its a little strange to see a completely blank passport again, but one good thing, at least this new passport’s picture is better than the last one (things are looking up). And with any luck, I’ll have a stamp in there within the next two weeks that looks something like this:

The 1st stamp in my new passport may look something like this.