Check Your Passport Expiration Dates...Now!

Looking for the rainbow...

We had been planning a trip to Israel for months. First we were going just for a Bar Mitzvah of our friend's son. Then we were going to make a trip out of it and stay for three weeks. It was huge. Lot's of planning. Lot's of thought. Yesterday at 11pm we were checking into the flight online, pulled out the passports only to find out, to our horror, that the children's passports expired nine months ago! Where was the planning?! We're world travelers, for crying out loud! What went wrong?! How are we going to make this trip happen?! Eleven pm the night before the flight. It seemed impossible.

Here was our thought process...

1) We could just show up with our kids, our luggage and backpacks, maybe some snacks and their expired passports and hope for the best. Maybe plead ignorance. "What?! Oh, their passports are expired?! OMG, could you please let us in anyway?? We're very nice people. What, you say that our children look nothing like the photos on those old passports?" No way. Do Not Even Try This.

2) Google "How to get a passport in a hurry" and you'll find what might be the answer to the dilemma. There's a host of passport-expediter services ready to seemingly make your life easier. You can get your passport in 2 business days for $299 each. Add to that $50 for a FedEx package, one-way to the passport agency, and add another $50 for the return trip from the magical passport genie service, and then add the normal rush charge of $60 that the U.S. Passport Agency charges for those bad planners who need it speedy quick. Oh, and you still need to do steps i - v shown below. That's a lot of pita bread, especially because we have two kids. Gulp.

3) Call the airline and start to cry and see if they have any suggestions. One suggestion was to call the U.S. consulate for Israel in New York. Their message essentially said they were on strike and don't leave a message. A second option was to call TSA. See if they'll make an exception. Ask if they can write us a letter. Vouch for us? Anything? No dice. How about call the Department of State? We called DOS and we were told, without question, do not travel without an up-to-date passport. OK, got that cleared up. What should we do now?! We told our new contact that we tried and could not get an appointment at the NYC passport office (our closest U.S. Passport Agency office) until Aug 7. He asked how flexible we were and, of course, we said VERY. He did some tapping on a computer and said that we could have an appointment in the Portsmouth NH (near Boston) office on Tuesday at 11am and fly out of Boston or we could have an appointment in Buffalo NY on Friday at 9am and fly out of Buffalo. We could pay the expedite fee, wait 3 - 4 hours and be on our way. He said "you will have your passports in 3-4 hours. No problem."

We were on the phone with this guy at the same time as we were on another phone with the airline (United) to try to re-schedule our flight out. Because of all of our strategic planning, we had a pretty good air fare to Israel. In order to change our outgoing flight, we would probably incur a cost because the price will have gone up...we just wanted to find the combination that would give us the lowest added cost possible. Plus, don't forget, there would be a "change fee" ($300/each ticket) for changing the reservation! Now the United agent, hearing our pitiful story had a little rachmunus, a little pity, and waived the change fee (whew, we just saved $1,200 smackers! Thank you, United!) Then we just needed to explain to United that we had to fly out of either Buffalo on Friday or Boston on Tuesday and please tell us which will cost us the least. At $287 per ticket additional, it was 'hello Buffalo!' and a side trip to Niagara Falls (see rainbow above).

If you need to get a U.S. passport in a hurry, here's what you do. Find a U.S. Passport Agency that's near you or that you're willing to get to in some way (drive, fly, skateboard, hitchhike), a place where you can get a confirmed appointment. You need a confirmation number. Don't just show up. Then bring these materials (if it is your child (a minor) who needs the passport):

i) The kid's previous passport.
ii) Both parents, if the kid has two parents. If one parent can't make it, you need some sort of letter. What a hassle! Fastest way. Both parents, in the flesh, carrying their own passports (as proof of who they are).
iii) The kid's birth certificate. The one with the seal, not a copy. This will verify who the parents are.
iv) Parents: bring your driver's license. This will show evidence of your address.
v) A filled-out DS-11 form. But do not sign it yet. Sign it in front of the Passport Agency personnel.

Pay the fee (they take credit cards). Come back in 3 to 4 hours. And, behold, passports!

And happy-ish parents! It cost us way too much for this mistake, but we are on our way to Israel.

But if you do find yourself in this predicament and you happen to go to the Buffalo office (nice folks there), be sure to check out Niagara Falls during your "down time." And do not play the blame game with your significant other!

Learn from our mistake.

Return Home, Reflections on Trip

Latitude: 51°10'11.98"N; Longitude: 0°10'21.42"W

We had a L O N G drive to the hotel (Corner House Hotel in Horley) which is very close to Gatwick Airport. We kept is lively with The Mists of Avalon. But it was still a little too long for all of our tastes. Though the scenery has been remarkable for most of the trip, the highway (I believe it was the A1(M)) south towards London is less than lovely. Gatwick Airport is still south of London and not really in London. We never saw London on this trip. It's for another time.

Latitude: 51° 9'1.57"N; Longitude: 0°10'35.95"W

We dropped off our rental car (or would that be a 'hire car'?) at Hertz and then went into Gatwick to wait for the flight. What a wonderful trip we all had. There were so many cute towns and sweet places to see. The countryside is so pastoral. Parts of it, with the rolling green hills and grazing bovine, looking strikingly like...New England. Imagine! The history of the UK is incredible, from the Romans to the Vikings and the Normans. Catholicism, Christianity, paganism. The castles and cathedrals, royalty and the commoners, or I mean everybody else. Just driving around and getting out at places along the way reveal the long history of being conquered and a history of conquering and creating the British Empire. It's all so fascinating to someone from the U.S., where our history of colonialism started in the 1600's, we have no real royals (except for maybe our super wealthy) and we are a much larger, geographically speaking.

The trip was a great way to celebrate the end of the school term for the kids and the wrapping up of the Fulbright and sabbatical work for us. If I could shell out some advice...got your kids a passport and take them places, early and often.

The photo at top is from Alnmouth, England, the second photo is from Cambridge, England, and the last photo was taken in Edinburgh, Scotland. These photos and more from the trip are located on my Flickr page.

We Have Arrived in Barbados

We made it. We left September 1, picked up by a driver at 4:30 am, and we all got to JFK for the 8:30am direct flight to the Grantley Adams International airport in Barbados. It couldn't have been smoother yet we were saying at the end, "let's not do this again." I do believe that all the extra effort that goes into moving to a new country for a year is well worth it, but time will tell. The view to the left is from our apartment in St. James so I think we will be pretty happy here.

Tomorrow is my first day going into the UWI, so I wanted to catch this blog up on what all went into getting off to Barbados. I’ve been without internet of late, detailed below, but now I’m back in action.

I mentioned in a previous post some of the things that needed to be done or looked into prior to departure. Here are a few more items that we needed to take care of before we left:

Mothballing the vehicles - Since we decided on NOT taking a car with us, we needed to winterizing them. We have two cars. We're not driving them so we needed to take care to get the insurance reduced for the year and still have it so that mice won't eat the rubber tubing and start to live in the vehicles.

Internet - The apartment we are renting comes with high speed internet through the phone line. I haven't heard of this, but that is what it is. We needed to look into buying a modem prior to taking off. We were told that we go to a Lime Retail Outlet and buy one and then we are all set.

Packing, packing real real light! - We had a pile worth of mostly essential items to bring. We had two large suitcases or duffel bags each. We had a scale. We did a pretty amazing job of keeping our weight per person down to 140 lbs. I will be going back in October and will pick up those few things that we could live without for a month and a half.

Paperwork for a long-term visa - We needed to take care to remember the birth certificates, passports, extra passport photos (because we'll be in Barbados so long), vaccination records for the kids, police character report, a letter from our bank and a character report from our employer. Wow!

Bringing money - We decided to bring American Express Travelers Cheques. We got the travelers checks at AAA, where, if you are a member (which we are), there are no fees. This was a big cost savings. (Note: Updated travelers checks information added Dec 2009.)

Starting a bank account - We were advised by past Fulbrighters to Barbados that opening a bank account can take some time. With a few phone calls we decided to go with one particular bank. The bank asked us to bring a bank check from your bank in the U.S., plus a letter of good character from the bank, plus two forms of ID. All of this should expedite our new account.

After arriving in Barbados, here are some things to note: Though we brought Travelers Cheques, they are definitely not preferred by vendors. (See this post added in Dec 2009.) The checks take a month to clear at the banks. What we need to do is cash them and then pay in Barbados dollars. Since we’ve opened a bank account, we think that we will be able to cash the travelers check and not have to have the long wait.

The funds that we brought via a bank check will take a month to clear. Seems excessive but we can wait that long.

It took longer to get our car arrangement than we had originally planned so it took longer to get to the Lime Cable & Wireless Retail Store to buy the modem. We finally bought the modem (wireless!) but it is still not working quite properly. We hope this will be resolved by Monday. I need to call into Lime and give them a number off the bottom of the modem and then, viola, we should be in wireless business!

We got to the Lime Retail Store in Speightstown by bus. The bus was a breeze and costs very little to ride. While at Lime, we bought two cheap, no-thrills, cell phones. We also got $25 BBD worth of minutes.

Food and other supplies are expensive. Eating out at restaurants is very expensive. Rum drinks are not expensive.

The Bajan people have been so friendly and welcoming. One guy thanked me for coming to share my knowledge.

We started taking photos and videos. No more co-opting other people’s nice shots! I’ll put them up in Flickr and Panoramio. This is us in full research mode! Cute, huh?

It's all about to begin!

The To-Do List: Preparing to Live Abroad for a Year

My family and I will move to Barbados on September 1 and live there for a year. In order to make this transition smooth, we've kept a running list of things to do on a Google Doc spreadsheet. I've worked with the U.S Embassy in Barbados on some of this, and that has been great. I've also worked with my CIES contact in Washington D.C. and that, too, has been terrific.

Until I start to take my own photos, I'll borrow shots from the internet of where we're headed. This one is from Panoramio and is by Terry Andrews.

Here's a list of some of the more pressing things we've been taking care of in the past weeks:

Vehicle - To take a car or to not take a car. Shipping our vehicle seemed to be an option for a moment and we even fantasized about bringing the kayaks and bikes. However, the more we delved into the matter, the more it seemed cost prohibitive and/or impossible. There is an age restriction of four years for cars imported into Barbados. Ours is ten years old. The other issue would be duties. I never got a really solid answer, but it may be as much as 61 percent of the value of the vehicle. Here is the page that I went by.

What we will do for a car is rent one long-term. I got the name of a mechanic who does this through the person at the UWI that I am working with.

School for the kids - Public vs. Private. We decided on a private school option, the Learning Solutions campus. School will start right away for the children. They are mixed between excited and dread but mostly they are filled with happy anticipation.

Place to live - If you're going all the way to paradise, might as well try to be near the water. As I reported before, we went to Barbados and looked at a bunch of housing options. We settled on one that we love and got that all taken care of. It was very easy to find housing on-line. There were photos, email addresses and phone numbers.

Clothes and shoes - The average temperature is 85° F. We will want to have light clothing but not too casual. The kids will need school clothes. We are buying Keens, sun protection shirts, and shorts (not cargo shorts). When we visited in May, we saw a notice at the airport that there was a restriction on wearing camouflage attire. We will not bring any camo.

Airline tickets and luggage - We got our airline tickets on American Airlines. Jet Blue has a very low fare from JFK to Barbados but it does not start until October 1. As for the luggage, we can bring only two checked bags and one carry-on with us. Checked bags can weigh up to 50 pounds, carry-on can be 40 pounds. We will need to be frugal and conscientious with what we decide to bring.

Diplomatic pouch - We sent four boxes of books and articles via the Fulbright diplomatic pouch. Each weighed 50 pounds and the cost was about $80 total. These boxes get sent by 'media rate' to Washington D.C. and then are forwarded to the U.S. Embassy in Barbados. Utilizing this benefit was important given the weight restrictions on our flight. This shipment was done three weeks before departure.

Phone calls - We will suspend our U.S. cell phone numbers but keep our land-line operating with a message to call our Skype number (same area code). After a paid for the Skype number for a year ($60) I heard about MagicJack, a device that allows you to make calls from your PC through the internet ... for free. Sounds too good to be true so I will need to check this out and report back. The Magicjack costs $39 which includes the first year's service cost. The next year will cost $19. When we get to Barbados, we'll get cell phones.

Visa and passport - We all have passports but we all need to get a visa. This should not be a problem we just need to bring five passport photos of ourselves, a birth certificate, and the kid's vaccination records. I have a working visa while in Barbados.

Medical insurance - I get extra medical coverage through the Fulbright. The family needed to get extra coverage for international travel and emergency medical evacuation coverage.

Miscellaneous items - software for the kids, renting the house, storing the cars(s) and removing the license plate, finding temporary homes for the pets, finding a gardener to keep up the lawn and clean the leaves, buy snorkel gear, new (sun) glasses prescription, medical and dental appointments, hair cuts, and on and on.

This last shot is also from Panoramio and is by jamesbell07. It clarifies the reason for the SPF shirts, snorkel gear and flotation devices. And sun screen.