How to get a Passport

What we learned today on how to obtain Passports in NoVA (which is much, much different than visiting our local town hall in Maine to obtain them)


1. Go online and find out where the local passport office is - around here they're located at Post Offices. And it seems as though Post Offices are a dime a dozen around here.

2. Find the CORRECT location.

3. Be sure you go to the CORRECT location and not the one where you think you called.

4. When you go to the incorrect location to get said passport, be sure you know exactly where the correct location is before you leave, that way you are not driving around asking all sorts of weird people where this specific post office is in a huge ass strip mall, and the post office is No.Where.To.Be.Seen.

5. Be sure to fill out the application in black because supposedly the rules changed today and I had to redo the application twice.

6. Be sure to wear a breastfeeding friendly dress (that is of course, if you are breastfeeding) that way you do not need to man handle your breasts out of your dress in order for your nearly one year old to nurse in the Post Office.

7. It also might be a good idea to brush up on some random foreign languages because not every Postal worker can speak adequate English or understandable English. Or a pocket translator may help?

8. When you get to the correct Postal Office, it might help to get there on time because if you aren't, the workers won't bother helping you, and you will only have to reschedule your appointment.

9. When you realize you will not get your passports done at the correct office, be sure to have the number of the post office you had originally intended to call in the first place, and see if they have any available appointments.

10. Take out a second mortgage on your home. Passports are expensive!