This has also been posted in the "Life after US Citizenship" forum.
This post is for the benefit of those who may have mistakenly submitted less than the required documents with their US passport application.
Immediately after my Oath ceremony I took backup copies of our (self and wife) and headed for the post office to apply for our passports (with 2 kids). The Post Office clerk first presented a challenge as he did not know how to handle foreign birth certificates of our kids. After getting clarifications from the State Dept on the phone, he processed our applications.
I failed to submit my kids' green cards with their applications (though I had them in my pocket). The State Dept's website does not mention that you need to submit evidence of lawful admission to the US (ie green card), but the passport form does. I read the website carefully, and assumed that the passport form instructions were the same. So our kids applications were sent without their green cards.
Me and my wife received our passports in a little over 2 weeks (regular processing. My kids' passports never arrived. I called customer service every few days for 6 weeks and each time they just read me the status that was on the website. When I mentioned that I should have submitted their GCs, and if they could tell me how to do that now, they were clueless, and just advised me to wait a few days more for instructions.
I finally made an appointment at the Chicago Passport Agency, just outside the 6 weeks period. On the appointment day (last Friday, 7/17) I took the entire family to the office, explained the situation at 3 different windows. They retrieved our kids' applications (the physical paperwork), took their green cards and finally issued their passports today, which I collected in person together with their original birth certificates and my wife's naturalization certificate.
One point to note: At the first window, the agent looked up the kids application using the locator number which I gave him (from the online status). He gave me an internal printout which had a record of all the calls that I had made (just date and time). The printout also mentioned that a letter was sent out on 7/16 (which incidentally I got on 7/17 evening). Contents of the letter were not mentioned on the printout. I had to take this printout to the second window to help them locate my file. Then I had to go to a third window to hand over the green cards and get a "pick-up" slip for the next business day.
Lessons learnt:
1. Read instructions on the passport form and not the website
2. Calling them is useless - they just read the information which is available on the website.
3. If any documents are missing, they will issue a letter at about the 6 week point. If you realize this yourself, schedule an appointment just after 6 weeks if you know which office your application is at, and hand over the required document in person.
They did not charge anything for issuing the passports the next business day, as it was already past 6 weeks.
This post is for the benefit of those who may have mistakenly submitted less than the required documents with their US passport application.
Immediately after my Oath ceremony I took backup copies of our (self and wife) and headed for the post office to apply for our passports (with 2 kids). The Post Office clerk first presented a challenge as he did not know how to handle foreign birth certificates of our kids. After getting clarifications from the State Dept on the phone, he processed our applications.
I failed to submit my kids' green cards with their applications (though I had them in my pocket). The State Dept's website does not mention that you need to submit evidence of lawful admission to the US (ie green card), but the passport form does. I read the website carefully, and assumed that the passport form instructions were the same. So our kids applications were sent without their green cards.
Me and my wife received our passports in a little over 2 weeks (regular processing. My kids' passports never arrived. I called customer service every few days for 6 weeks and each time they just read me the status that was on the website. When I mentioned that I should have submitted their GCs, and if they could tell me how to do that now, they were clueless, and just advised me to wait a few days more for instructions.
I finally made an appointment at the Chicago Passport Agency, just outside the 6 weeks period. On the appointment day (last Friday, 7/17) I took the entire family to the office, explained the situation at 3 different windows. They retrieved our kids' applications (the physical paperwork), took their green cards and finally issued their passports today, which I collected in person together with their original birth certificates and my wife's naturalization certificate.
One point to note: At the first window, the agent looked up the kids application using the locator number which I gave him (from the online status). He gave me an internal printout which had a record of all the calls that I had made (just date and time). The printout also mentioned that a letter was sent out on 7/16 (which incidentally I got on 7/17 evening). Contents of the letter were not mentioned on the printout. I had to take this printout to the second window to help them locate my file. Then I had to go to a third window to hand over the green cards and get a "pick-up" slip for the next business day.
Lessons learnt:
1. Read instructions on the passport form and not the website
2. Calling them is useless - they just read the information which is available on the website.
3. If any documents are missing, they will issue a letter at about the 6 week point. If you realize this yourself, schedule an appointment just after 6 weeks if you know which office your application is at, and hand over the required document in person.
They did not charge anything for issuing the passports the next business day, as it was already past 6 weeks.