US passport renewal by mail

[Jack Peterson]

1 minute ago, Possum said:

this hangup with signatures seems to be part of the culture here. rant over...

 Most banks/ Finance houses here usually as for 3 specimen signatures on Forms along with IDs

[OnMyWay]

On 8/12/2024 at 2:18 PM, OnMyWay said:

I sent mine to the Embassy by LBC today.  I hope my signature is ok.  My signature ain't what it used to be.

LBC delivered it overnight, today.  Hopefully it will not be routed to the signature mafia!

[earthdome]

My passport just went through the laundry. The ID page is fine, not sure if the visa stamp pages are legible enough. I likely will need that to get my ph drivers license renewed, it expired in 2016. Arghh. The LTO office is close by so I don't have far to go and check. Plus my US DL is a temporary which expires next month and I have not received the new one yet. In the PH life is like a box of melted chocolates.

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, earthdome said:

My passport just went through the laundry. The ID page is fine, not sure if the visa stamp pages are legible enough. 

I did that in Germany, including washer and dryer.  It came out of the dryer all curled up, and I frantically ironed it to flatten it out.  It was kinda frayed looking but almost everything was ok.  Amazingly, I never had to replace it.  Next time I went through German immigration, the agent held it up and asked "Waschmaschine?" and chuckled.  Apparently, this is a common occurrence.

[hk blues]

14 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

I did that in Germany, including washer and dryer.  It came out of the dryer all curled up, and I frantically ironed it to flatten it out.  It was kinda frayed looking but almost everything was ok.  Amazingly, I never had to replace it.  Next time I went through German immigration, the agent held it up and asked "Waschmaschine?" and chuckled.  Apparently, this is a common occurrence.

I never knew you spoke German! 

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, hk blues said:

I never knew you spoke German! 

I don't.  In Bonn, the former capital that formerly had all the embassies, English was widely spoken, so I got away with it.  I took lessons for a few months but I am not good with languages.  I know more Spanish than German.

[hk blues]

3 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

I don't.  In Bonn, the former capital that formerly had all the embassies, English was widely spoken, so I got away with it.  I took lessons for a few months but I am not good with languages.  I know more Spanish than German.

My (weak) attempt at a joke - I was referring to you being able to understand "Waschmaschine?"

 

 

[Possum]

I just returned from the US Embassy in my passport renewal quest. The bottom line is this. If you renew by mail be SURE your signature closely matches the one on you existing passport. As I mentioned before my renewal was not allowed because the signature didn't match.

Today when I turned in my application and the refusal letter I told the Filipino lady I would not leave until my signature is approved. I explained all the problems from before and showed her the previous applications just to bring her up to date. She asked me to sign my application. She then said my signature didn't match, it had changed. I showed her my expired passport from 10 years ago and it was signed entirely differently. She then got someone else involved. Again questioning my signature. By then I am running low on patience. I explained to them what they should already know. The signature on my application just affirms that I agree under penalty of perjury and prosecution that all statements are true. They have my old photo, my new photo and they are looking at me so they know it's me they WATCHED me sign it so what difference does it make if my signature is not an exact match? In addition in all the instructional material for passport application nowhere does it say the signature must match exactly? They could not answer. I said you are applying Philippine signature obsessions to US process. Next came another guy [Filipino]. He looked at everything and wanted to know if I had a official document with my signature on it from the Philippine government. I said I have a drivers license. I gave it to him and told him that if this is not approved today I want to speak to a vice consul or consul. They accepted my application then.

One thing I noticed is they apparently had never read the affirmation stated before the signature line. They found it interesting.

So...make sure your signature matches your passport as the staff at the embassy are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

[OnMyWay]

Reporting back.  Sent old passport to embassy via LBC on Sept 4.  New one delivered back to me today, the 28th.  24 days.

[OnMyWay]

On 9/13/2024 at 9:55 PM, Possum said:

One thing I noticed is they apparently had never read the affirmation stated before the signature line. They found it interesting.

So...make sure your signature matches your passport as the staff at the embassy are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

So I have my new passport and it needs to be signed.  Now I am paranoid to sign it!