So
we are just about to leave for the airport this arvo and what a week
its been. For those who don’t know, you apparently must have 6 months
validity on your passport to travel to the USA. That critical piece of
information was buried in the fine print of the travel agent itinerary
on page 30. No one thought to bring this to our attention. The USA
visa website did not flag it and neither did the Smart Traveller
website, all three of which had our passport details and travel dates as
we entered them on to their respective websites. Massive technology
fail as far as we are concerned.
Why
was this an issue? Our daughters both had child passports of 5 years
length, which expire within 5 months and 2 weeks of our travel date, 2
weeks short of the required 6 months. So Saturday was a panicked phone
call to the Passport office for a Tuesday morning appointment. Saturday
night is completing a whole new passport applications. Sunday is
getting the required photos. Monday is getting the photos and documents
signed by the sponsor. Tuesday is lodging the documents which aside
from one set of photos having to be redone were perfect. Wedenesday is
picking up the new passports (record time for the passport office and
BIG thanks to them). Wednesday afternoon is reapplying for new ESTA USA
visas, then having heart failure as the site crashes halfway through
the payment process. Wednesday evening is checking and finding the
Visas are processed.
We’re ready to go.
Sean and Lorraine
No comments:
Post a Comment