Avoid expedited passport request unless absolutely necessary

L

loyal_indian

New Member
We (My wife and I) applied for our passports on the 10th of May (the same day we took oath in NJ).

We were told that it could take upto 6 weeks to get our passports. We were told that expedited processing takes 2 weeks and costs $60 per passport. I choose normal processing and was prepared to wait for 3 weeks. However, when I returned home from work today (less than 3 weeks) we had our passports in the mail. One of my friends also recieved his passport within 3 weeks of applying for it.

I now plan to immediately apply for either the Indian Visa or the PIO card


My time line

PD : 5th of June 2003
FP: Late July 2003
Interview and Oath: May 10th 2004
 
loyal_indian said:
We (My wife and I) applied for our passports on the 10th of May (the same day we took oath in NJ).

We were told that it could take upto 6 weeks to get our passports. We were told that expedited processing takes 2 weeks and costs $60 per passport. I choose normal processing and was prepared to wait for 3 weeks. However, when I returned home from work today (less than 3 weeks) we had our passports in the mail. One of my friends also recieved his passport within 3 weeks of applying for it.
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Did you receive both your naturalization certificate and passport in US First class mail? I have seen posts on this forum about loosing mail. Imagine the pain one has to go through if they do not receive the mail. Whereas expedited for sure will be Express or some kind of trackable mail. Any opinions and experiences? Thanks.
 
sssnayak said:
Did you receive both your naturalization certificate and passport in US First class mail? I have seen posts on this forum about loosing mail. Imagine the pain one has to go through if they do not receive the mail. Whereas expedited for sure will be Express or some kind of trackable mail. Any opinions and experiences? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I applied for expedited service, but the passport and naturalization certificate were delivered in first class postal mail as well.
 
I did not do expedited service, and always thought expedited would at least be Express mail. This is bad. Thanks for sharing this information. Can anyone think of a way to suggest National Visa center, to make this really 'expedited'?
 
sssnayak said:
I did not do expedited service, and always thought expedited would at least be Express mail. This is bad. Thanks for sharing this information. Can anyone think of a way to suggest National Visa center, to make this really 'expedited'?
Click to expand...


http://travel.state.gov/passport_expedite.html


You will have to add cost for overnight delivery in addition to the $60. Or include a prepaid envelope with your application.

sssnayak said:
Can anyone think of a way to suggest National Visa center, to make this really 'expedited'?
Click to expand...
National Visa Center for Passport?
 
My rationale for not appyling for expedited processing

I chose normal processing over expedited processing for the following reasons:

1) I was not a great hurry to travel internationally

2) The chances of a piece of mail getting "lost" are about or less than 1 in 100 (at least where I live)

3) This is not like the green card processing, where if something gets lost or misplaced your stay in the US could be in jeopardy. Worst case if the passport got lost in the mail, I would have requested for another passport. Assuming they have all the details (including a copy of the Naturalisation certificate) this should not take too long. The naturalisation certificate in itself has little additional INS value, if you have your passport.

5) In the extreme case if Murphy's law proved true and everything got lost, I guess I would have called up the local passport office and the INS office. They should have records of the oath and interview. My citizenship experience was quite pleasant (unlike the green card) so it was not a nail biting wait for my passport thru normal processing
 
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