June - August 2023 - Passport

I thought I was all ready for my trip. Then I started working on my visas, and it hit me, I'm going to 70 countries and I only have 12 empty pages in my passport and the Chinese Visa takes 2 pages alone. Yikes! I need a new 50 page passport.

I send off my passport on June 6th, and the site says it will take 6 to 8 weeks to get it renewed. 4 weeks in, they inform me it’s going to take 10 to 13 weeks. Ugh! That means it will be late September before I get my passport back and that leaves little time to get my visas.

It’s now the middle of August, and I’m starting to panic. So, I book a refundable cruise to Mexico (international travel requiring a passport), which leaves in 2 weeks. This is the only way to get an appointment for a same day passport. However, the only available appointments are in Dallas or Chicago and I’m in California. I call every day for 8 days and finally there is an appointment in 2 days in San Diego and I jump on it!

Long story short I finally got my new large passport and because I have an extensive itinerary, and I had duplicates of the application and picture (always good to be prepared) they actually said I could get a second passport, which is only good for 4 years as opposed to 10. The purpose of the 2nd passport is if you go to countries that don’t like each other you can use your 2nd passport so they don’t see that you’ve been to the other country. Also, if I have to send off my passport to get a visa I can still travel.

Passports in hand, I immediately cancel my cruise and get a full refund. Now it’s time to start the visa process.


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