U.S. Passport Renewal For A Child In PH

[OnMyWay]

I posted about renewing Philippines passports at DFA.  Now I have to renew my 5 year old's U.S. passport and I am planning to do it at the upcoming U.S. Embassy Outreach here in the Freeport on June 21.

My wife and I were chatting about the Philippines DFA requirements for a child's passport renewal, and we both thought they were a bit of overkill!  Shouldn't the old passport, application and personal appearance be enough?  I said I thought that is what the U.S. would be.

Wrong!  Talk about overkill.  Renewing a child's U.S. passport here in the Philippines requires a stack of papers.  I guess they think another kid could be substituted????  

Here is the checklist that must be completed and signed:

https://ph.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/82/PASSPORT-MINOR-RENEWAL-MINOR-CHANGE-NAME-MINOR-TO-FULL-VALIDITY-April-2018.pdf

The one item I found amazing is that you have to submit a photo record of growing up pictures since the last passport!  I kind of see some logic as the first passport is usually a baby picture, but is there so much fraud out there that they have to make you submit growing up pictures???  

[OnMyWay]

We went to the outreach today and my daughter Katy's passport renewal went smoothly.

I dropped my eldest at school then swung by the hotel to sign in.  I signed in at about 0735 and we were #34 on the DS 11 Passport list, for the 0800 start.  There is also a DS 82 passport signup sheet.  DS 82 is supposed to be for renewing by mail, so I'm not sure exactly what those people were doing.

We came back with kids at about 0850 and the staff were on #17.  We had to wait about 45 minutes to be called.  The screener process took about 1 minute when she saw I had every in order with copies of everything.  Then I paid p6210, $110, for a child renewal.  They only take pesos and the conversion was 54.  Then we saw a consular officer who made us swear in.  She actually checked everything well.  Growing up pictures, etc.  Then she had me pull my daughters hair back so she could see her ears.  I guess the ears should always stay the same?  There are two consular officers and I think the other one knows us from past outreaches, but this one I do not remember.  After that we paid Air 21 p240 for shipping and we were out by around 1015.

I think I have been to around 5 outreaches now and it always amazes me how unprepared so many people are.  There is so much information about each process online and in the case of passports, a very simple checklist that you have to follow, sign and submit.  Yet so many people don't have something, or have to get copies, etc.

My kids always have fun at the outreaches as there are always a lot of kids to play with.  Katy made friends right away with a 6 year old behind us and it turns out they were interesting visitors to the outreach, visiting from the U.S.  The dark skinned Fil / Am mom was about the same age as my wife and was born in San Francisco.  When we sat down I would have thought she and her olive skinned daughter were locals.  Unfortunately, they were in the Philippines because her father had passed away, and they were helping her mom change her social security benefits.  Her mom and dad moved to the U.S. in the 60's, then about 10 years ago, retired back to San Felipe.

Speaking of kids, boy oh boy there were so many old farts there this time with young kids getting CRBAs, passports, etc.  There must have been a lot of bad condoms shipped out 1-2 years ago!  

[Mark Berkowitz]

5 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Speaking of kids, boy oh boy there were so many old farts there this time with young kids getting CRBAs, passports, etc.  There must have been a lot of bad condoms shipped out 1-2 years ago!  

I resemble that remark, since I'm the 65 year old dad of a 2 year old boy.

but what's a condom?

 

 

[Jack Peterson]

4 minutes ago, Mark Berkowitz said:

there were so many old farts there this time with young kids getting CRBAs, passports, etc.  There must have been a lot of bad condoms

 I will just leave this here       Sorry Mark of course you did not say this but OMW but I got  fat finger Boogie

Edited June 21, 2019 by Jack Peterson
Friday night Fingers

[OnMyWay]

Follow up.  Air 21 attempted delivery yesterday but delivered my daughter's pass passport today, the 6th.  We applied at the outreach on June 27th so that is a very nice turnaround time!

Air 21 called when they were 5 minutes away.  I told my 5 year old daughter she had a package coming and she got very excited!

"Is it from Shoppee?".  I don't know how she knows about Shoppee but then she said...

"Mommy says they have an Elsa costume on Shoppee".

The delivery guy comes up on the porch and she says..

"Why is it so small?  It should be a box."

We cut it open and she saw the passport with her picture.  She says...

"That's an ID.  Why does that guy think I want an ID?"  and off she went to play!

Here is my 5 year old pride and joy's passport photo.  She got the serious look just right!

[intrepid]

On 6/7/2019 at 12:32 PM, OnMyWay said:

The one item I found amazing is that you have to submit a photo record of growing up pictures since the last passport!  I kind of see some logic as the first passport is usually a baby picture, but is there so much fraud out there that they have to make you submit growing up pictures??? 

Hey Don, I read over the list of requirements noting the one you mentioned on photos.  It just says photos.  Do you think they would accept each year school photo IDs?  Would seem that would be good record of growing.  We have kept our daughters and could easily make copies.

[roddavis]

43 minutes ago, intrepid said:

Hey Don, I read over the list of requirements noting the one you mentioned on photos.  It just says photos.  Do you think they would accept each year school photo IDs?  Would seem that would be good record of growing.  We have kept our daughters and could easily make copies.

It may work, but when I had my sons passport renewed , they asked for 2-3 pictures per year. We just got his passport yesterday(almost 4 weeks since submitting)

[OnMyWay]

48 minutes ago, intrepid said:

Hey Don, I read over the list of requirements noting the one you mentioned on photos.  It just says photos.  Do you think they would accept each year school photo IDs?  Would seem that would be good record of growing.  We have kept our daughters and could easily make copies.

It might work, but here is what I did.  We always take the kids pics on their birthdays, right?

I used 2 pics per year.  One was a clear facial shot on her birthday, and the other was a shot of her birthday cake which always had the age on it!  I put them in a Word document, labeled them, First Birthday, Second Birthday, etc., up to her recent 5th birthday.

The lady looked through it quickly and said nothing, so I guess it was fine!

[intrepid]

Thanks guys.  Our daughter's passport expires Jan 3, 2021.  We have a trip planned back to the states May-June 2020.  With a six month rule on the passport for traveling we will be cutting it close.  She is in the 8th grade and will be 14 in December.  I believe this will be her last 5 year passport.  Then every ten years.  Her Philippine passport expires Feb 2021.  Plenty to keep us busy.

[OnMyWay]

33 minutes ago, intrepid said:

With a six month rule on the passport for traveling we will be cutting it close.

That varies by country pairs.  For New Zealand, if you are using a passport from a visa waiver country like the U.S., it is only 3 months.  My daughter was about a month over the 3 months but I decided to renew it now while there was an outreach in town.

For the U.S., it is 6 months for non-U.S. countries, but your daughter is a U.S. citizen, so.........????

I did a quick search and if she is a U.S. citizen entering the U.S. on a U.S. passport, she does not need 6 months left on it.  As long as it is not expired she is ok.  You could even consider getting it renewed in the U.S., depending on what your plans are.  Do your due diligence.  Maybe an e-mail to passport services would confirm.