PASSPORTS

Because of the new regulations I finally have to get a passport. Does
anyone who has had a lot of experience w/ passports know if you don't
have 1 of your parents information (father) if it's going to be a
problem getting the passport? I have everything else certified birth
certificate etc but I don't know any information on my father and am
pretty sure cannot get it. Any advice would be great!
thx

traveldiva wrote:
Because of the new regulations I finally have to get a passport. Does
anyone who has had a lot of experience w/ passports know if you don't
have 1 of your parents information (father) if it's going to be a
problem getting the passport? I have everything else certified birth
certificate etc but I don't know any information on my father and am
pretty sure cannot get it. Any advice would be great!
thx

There are companys like Passports Plus (try google) which will take
care of all that. It's a little pricey but it cuts through the
anxiety. They will sooth you and get you your passport in a fraction
of the time it would take if you filled out the regular application and
sent away for it. All of my friends use them whenever they have a
trickey problem - for example, if you needed your passport in under a
week. If you are near New York City, they have an office in mid-town
Manhattan. It looks like the parent company is in Texas so they
probably have branches in a few places at least.

Carol
Editor - Lowfares.com
http://www.lowfares.com

I do not recall needing any more information about my parents than what
was contained on my birth certificate, I went on line to the gov. web
site and downloaded the required forms, took my own picture with my Sony
Cyber-shot camera and printed them out. As I remember I had to get my
signature notarized, and then my memory gets fuzzy, I took the
application to the court house I think. But the whole thing just took a
short while, I think the pass port came in in about three weeks. Things
could have changed as can be seen in this URL

New Application for a U.S. Passport
To obtain a passport for the first time, you need to go in person to one
of 7,000 passport acceptance facilities located throughout the United
States with two photographs of yourself, proof of U.S. citizenship, and
a valid form of photo identification such as a driver’s license.
http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html

traveldiva wrote:

Because of the new regulations I finally have to get a passport. Does
anyone who has had a lot of experience w/ passports know if you don't
have 1 of your parents information (father) if it's going to be a
problem getting the passport? I have everything else certified birth
certificate etc but I don't know any information on my father and am
pretty sure cannot get it. Any advice would be great!
thx

Jim Bob wrote:
I do not recall needing any more information about my parents than what
was contained on my birth certificate, I went on line to the gov. web
site and downloaded the required forms, took my own picture with my Sony
Cyber-shot camera and printed them out. As I remember I had to get my
signature notarized, and then my memory gets fuzzy, I took the
application to the court house I think. But the whole thing just took a
short while, I think the pass port came in in about three weeks. Things
could have changed as can be seen in this URL

New Application for a U.S. Passport
To obtain a passport for the first time, you need to go in person to one
of 7,000 passport acceptance facilities located throughout the United
States with two photographs of yourself, proof of U.S. citizenship, and
a valid form of photo identification such as a driver's license.
http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html

traveldiva wrote:

Because of the new regulations I finally have to get a passport. Does
anyone who has had a lot of experience w/ passports know if you don't
have 1 of your parents information (father) if it's going to be a
problem getting the passport? I have everything else certified birth
certificate etc but I don't know any information on my father and am
pretty sure cannot get it. Any advice would be great!
thx


Thx I think everything should be ok the main thing they ask for is
obviously proof of citizenship and I have that with my certified birth
certificate. I can't be the only person in the world who doesn't have a
parents information to enter.

On 1/29/06 10:41 PM traveldiva "tweaked" on too much Starbucks and said:
Jim Bob wrote:

I do not recall needing any more information about my parents than what
was contained on my birth certificate, I went on line to the gov. web
site and downloaded the required forms, took my own picture with my Sony
Cyber-shot camera and printed them out. As I remember I had to get my
signature notarized, and then my memory gets fuzzy, I took the
application to the court house I think. But the whole thing just took a
short while, I think the pass port came in in about three weeks. Things
could have changed as can be seen in this URL

New Application for a U.S. Passport
To obtain a passport for the first time, you need to go in person to one
of 7,000 passport acceptance facilities located throughout the United
States with two photographs of yourself, proof of U.S. citizenship, and
a valid form of photo identification such as a driver's license.
http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html

traveldiva wrote:

Because of the new regulations I finally have to get a passport. Does
anyone who has had a lot of experience w/ passports know if you don't
have 1 of your parents information (father) if it's going to be a
problem getting the passport? I have everything else certified birth
certificate etc but I don't know any information on my father and am
pretty sure cannot get it. Any advice would be great!
thx



Thx I think everything should be ok the main thing they ask for is
obviously proof of citizenship and I have that with my certified birth
certificate. I can't be the only person in the world who doesn't have a
parents information to enter.


Parental information is not critical. It may be used if you loose your
passport, driver's license plus major forms of id and wish to re-enter
the US. It happened to me once. They ask you questions like: "Where
were you born?", "Who is your Mother/Father?" "What is your home
address?" "Who is the President?" and possibly, "Who is your
Senator/Representative?" They may also ask you for your Social. If you
seem nervous or overly well rehearsed it's a red flag. For most of these
questions immigration draws upon the information you provided on your
passport. So, that's one reason why they may request parental
information. Provide what you can, chances are if you don't loose all
your documents, it will probably never be used.

--
________
To email me, Edit "blog" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951

thx for the info - when it comes to forms and government and all that
jazz I get overly concerned sometimes because - well it's the
government and the lord only knows what they can do or screw up or
require that has absolutely zero bearing on anything. - and if I
couldn't travel they may as well seal up the pine box and start tossin
in the dirt.. :-)

Just write in unknown ,give yourself
plenty of time and see what happens.
I think they're more intrested in the person that is traveling than
their family
tree!


Regards Bill

I didnt know my fathers info, so i just wrote unknown and it wasn't a
problem

The wife and I submitted our applications at the local courthouse this
week. After reading the skinny for passport photos on the government
web site, we got out the digital camera and took some pretty good
quality photos satisfying all the posted requirements and printed them
on my not so shabby Canon photo printer using glossy Canon photo paper.
The nice lady at the counter fingered them like they were dead bugs and
said "Hmmmm..... You take these yourself?" She said that apps are
sometimes returned due to being on the wrong paper (?!?!?). She said
she would submit them but with the look she gave me I'm not hopeful.
As we are not in a hurry its not a big deal if they send them back.

Anyone ever have an issue with photos not up to snuff? Especially the
paper. Like I said, all posted requirements were met.

traveldiva wrote:
Because of the new regulations I finally have to get a passport. Does
anyone who has had a lot of experience w/ passports know if you don't
have 1 of your parents information (father) if it's going to be a
problem getting the passport? I have everything else certified birth
certificate etc but I don't know any information on my father and am
pretty sure cannot get it. Any advice would be great!


Write down whatever it says on your birth certificate. In most states
moms were required to name a guilty party, even if she was unsure. If
it says "unknown" then write down "unknown". If all you are saying is
that you don't know the answer to the question "where was you father
born", just write down "unknown" for that question, or just make up a
place. They don't care as long as it was in the USA. The reason they
ask is to be able to warn you about potential complications of dual
citizenship (for example if you were a male between 16-30 and dad was
born in Syria, Syria considers you Syrian and draftable.