valid passports and berlin

[az2004]

i feel comfortable from your experience...

i got my ticket for berlin, hotels, air, etc...

i do know they received my expedited package yesterday, so that was my primary concern....the package being lost in transit....

[az2004]

am completely comfortable now...

got my new passport in hand..

7/7/09 to 7/15/09...

so much for 2-3 week service..

berlin will be wunderbar!!

[Randy Treadway]

I used the expedited process in May, and it took 3 weeks. Fortunately I didn't need to travel until the 3rd week of June. Spent 10 great days in Latvia.

[Speedfirst]

am completely comfortable now...

got my new passport in hand..

7/7/09 to 7/15/09...

so much for 2-3 week service..

berlin will be wunderbar!!

Exactly, told you, no worries, nice 8-)

[az2004]

we did latvia after helsinki 2005...

i think most folk did the renew late springish...

only people like me who found out late were doing the renew business now...

at leasrthe current passport does list the SIX MONTH period

[jules]

we did latvia after helsinki 2005...

So did we.

[az2004]

were you in riga, the day latvia drew russia to knock the russians out of the 2006 world cup...


big big party....


of the 3 baltic nations, latvia was obviously lagging behind lithuania and estonia...

don't know of things have improved much in the past 4 years

[26mi235]

I have a friend whose US renewal got hung up because he had a Canadian security clearance (because of work). THen, the Canadians saw that the FBI was looking at his passport and called in a review of his clearance. They decided he needed to supply a little more information. They wanted him to supply names of neighbors to be used for more investigation. Problem is, they only wanted current neighbors living in Canada; he lives in MadTown. Thus, a catch 22; he lost his Canadian clearance but at least he finally got is passport renewed.

[az2004]

i've been to some meets with retired "intelligence" people...

there are places, usa doesn't want them to visit...

they were in helsinki 2005, but that little possible sidetrip to the east or south was frowned upon...by our government, NOT the other guys

[ndamix]

i've been to some meets with retired "intelligence" people...

there are places, usa doesn't want them to visit...

they were in helsinki 2005, but that little possible sidetrip to the east or south was frowned upon...by our government, NOT the other guys

Ironically, I remember some years ago where the government didn't want military members of the U.S. Boxing Team to participate in matches in certain Eastern countries.

[az2004]

from what i gather it's more old grudges between foes, rather than real actual intelligence fears...

i suspect low level people with high level technical knowledge would be the targets of real spying now...

get them involved with a 20 year old and blackmail them stuff

[James Fields]

tandfman wrote:
"There are also some commercial services that can get you passports and visas with extremely short turnaround time. I've used one of them several times. They're not cheap, but they're good and their reliable.
--------
That's good advice. I've used such services for a related requirement: getting visas for entry to China, South Africa, etc. The best services hand carry your travel documents to relevant embassies. Further, they may have partner relationships with travel agents in your city -- including secure courier arrangements. It's best to have a good local agent to arrange sending/receiving of your paperwork. Passport security is always critical though more in some countries than others as I've found in travel to Israel and the former Yugoslavia.

[az2004]

before helsinki 2005, i went to st pete, and used one of those services...

south africa needs a usa visa??

i was thinking of doing the world cup next year and didn't realize it.....

[ppalmer]

before helsinki 2005, i went to st pete, and used one of those services...

south africa needs a usa visa??

i was thinking of doing the world cup next year and didn't realize it.....

Following the link posted above by ndamix, I went to a post office, expedited my passport, and received it in 6 days. (I did this in Chicago, in case location matters.) My passport had expired long enough ago that I needed to apply from scratch. But since I did have one before, they submitted the old one instead of my birth certificate.

I am very grateful for ndamix for posting the link and for the comments of a number of others above.

Pat Palmer