25 April 2007

PASSPORT NIGHTMARE

Case: Getting Passport to travel to Bahamas
Person: Our 4 year old
**CQ got Citizenship Papers...Budda Bean didn't**
Frusterated: Mommy
Crazy: Our Government Regulations
We are (were) so excited. Jason got an ALL EXPENSE PAID vacation to the BAHAMAS for being on the top of his salesgoal for the year. Why would I bring my kids do you ask....because I want to.:) Anyway, 2 months ago when Curley Q got her Citizenship Papers I realized that this was not the same thing that Budda Bean got. Instead, he got a Permanent Resident Card. So, after checking w/INS we realized that when he came home in '03, the rules/laws were alittle different. You had to "apply" to get Citizenship Papers. So, a couple of weeks ago, I made an appointment with INS and filled out all of the necessary paperwork for him to get his Citizenship Papers. (After we get his Citizenship Papers in, he must be re-coded by Social Security even though he IS a Citizen!!!)
This is where the tricky part comes in...we want to get a passport for Budda Bean, but his Citizenship Papers have to be sent in for Citizenship Varification with his passport info.
No: his Permanent Resident Card doesn't work, AND no the I-551 stamp in his Russian passport that verifies his Immediate Citizenship doesn't work either.
No: he can't travel w/his Russian Passport and PR card because when you are a Citizen of the USA, you can't travel w/any other passport b/c in the US they do not recognize dual Citizenship...so I was told by INS.
Yes: I've called everyone stemming from the Bahamian Embassy to INS to Passport Officers to Government Supervisors of Homeland Security...NOP we are out of luck until that Citizenship Certificate comes in...in about 60 days(they say). Can we expedite that? We tried and were denied b/c needing the papers for "Passport Purposes" isn't a valid enough reason.
Yes: I am sooooo sad and frusterated!!!!
Any advice?

3 comments:

Jennefer said...

I would be SO frustrated too! When we applied for a U.S. passport for Pineapple I was really unhappy about giving up her citizenship paper to send it with the application because what if it got lost in the mail? Luckily it all came back, but it took a long time. Way longer than a normal passport to process.

The good news is the certification paper might come sooner than you think. Sometimes when their isn't an expedite service you can just send a letter with the application explaining the urgency- and send it overnight with URGENT written on the envelope. Also, you can pay extra to expedite the passport. Good luck!

Laura said...

Oh my goodness! We have the same thing for Prince, the "card", we haven't brought him out of the country yet, so we had no idea, he needed something else. However, you are right, we also noticed the paperwork for Prince and Tiger are different. Thanks so much for posting this!!!
So,we have to contact INS??
hugs,
Laura

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