Nov 23, 2021 Passport office

I sit here waiting…

and waiting

and waiting…

Waiting for my meeting with a passport officer to make sure my daughter gets her passport in enough time before we go to Mexico.

Waiting.

Patience is my lesson of the day. Especially considering this is my second stint today waiting at the passport office. I was here all morning only to find out that even though the first screener looked at my application, he missed that I needed my daughter’s mom to sign the application.

So off I went back to Westbank. I met my daughter’s mom and got the signature. I took a few minutes out of the day and stopped for a burger from DQ…

I know I’m having a bad day when I stop for a drive-thru burger. 

What could be taking them so long? There are only ten people in the room and sixteen cubicles with people working in them. Not everyone is here for a passport. This morning I waited outside for thirty minutes and then another two and a half hours in the passport office to see an official passport officer. 

Only to find out I didn’t have a signature I needed. I thought the signature I was missing was my daughters’, but no – it was her mom’s signature they want.

At least there wasn’t a line to get back into the office this afternoon when I got back at 2:00 pm.

At least my ex noticed and told me I had a great big hole in the back of my pants before I came back downtown. 

Small blessings I guess. Better than walking around with my ass hanging out. I’m also glad I brought my laptop and my other paperwork that needs to be done. That way my afternoon isn’t a complete waste. Unlike my morning.

I still don’t understand why it takes so long. It is 2:53 and I am still waiting… It looks like I may need to get my wife to go pick up the kid from school. 

First-world problems, I know.

I am very grateful that I have an amazing wife who is willing and able to go pick her up from school. I hope my daughter appreciates that as well. But she is fifteen and fifteen-year-olds don’t seem to appreciate anything. I’m sure she won’t appreciate it takes me all day to get her the passport – or care.

Finally, my number is up. Time to go see the lady behind the glass.

Well, that sucked.

After five hours and two trips waiting to see someone, I get the bad news. The first passport officer failed to explain properly that I didn’t just need my daughter’s mother’s signature. I also need a thirteen-year-old custody agreement – which we are no longer following or using. 

Why couldn’t the first person be clear with me about that? She just told me the number on the agreement. Not that they need it. I figured why would they need it for my daughter when she is now living with me and the agreement is useless. Her mom insists we don’t even have an agreement. But it exists and the passport powers that be want to see it. 

Rules, and red tape. The inefficient ways of our government bureaucracy keep rearing their ugly head. At least they give me a piece of paper so I can miss the line when I get back. I guess there are lots of people who have to come back more than once.

No wonder it takes so long in line.

So they tell me to go to the courthouse and get a copy of the agreement. It shouldn’t take long. Except we are still talking about government. Nothing is simple when it comes to government. Of course, they don’t have a thirteen-year-old piece of paper, they would have to get someone to search for it in a storage facility.

But I had an idea. 

I think that maybe I did keep a copy. When I get home it only takes a few minutes and there it is, dated May 5, 2008. I’m surprised that I still have it – sometimes not throwing anything away works in my favour.

Too bad I didn’t understand the first officer that I needed to bring it back with me. 

Oh well, lesson learned and I still have lots of time to get her passport back before our trip. 

And the slow mechanisms of government will keep winding along.