This one was a fun journey and it wasn’t as complicated as I thought it would be! This was our first time getting our passports, so we had to fill the two-page form. We also got to do photos! We applied for pass ports earlier in the summer and it took a full seven weeks to receive them. I have heard that the busiest time for the passport offices is summer, and that it can take up to eight weeks to get a pass port. We originally got our passport because we thought we would be flying, but of vacation plans changed a bit and we didn’t end up using them. Since I have gone through the journey of getting a passport as a single mom with a four-year-old, I am going to share with you my five tips and things that I learned along the way.
Pick up the papers and fill them out ahead of time! AND pick up extras.
This is good because you don’t have to watch your four-year-old run all around the passport office while trying to think up all the answers to the pass port questions and simultaneously write them down. You can do it in the comfort of your home while your kid watches Netflix. Pick up extras because you have to write in pen and you our bound to make a mistake somewhere, I did.
Bring more documents than you need.
I brought two forms of identification for both me and my daughter, which is what I thought the pass port hand out said to bring. I also brought mail with proof of our address. This was a piece of mind thing for me. We ended up only needing our birth certificates AND my drivers license.
They might keep your documents!
The place we went sent off our birth certificates with the pass post application and then we got them back around the time our passports came in the mail.
Documentation that you can get your child a passport.
If you are the only one on the birth certificate then the birth certificate is all the documentation you should need, this is all I needed anyway. But the lady did say that if you are not you needed a signed document (some kind of official something or other) if the other parent wasn’t present.
Go to a pass port place that take pictures and your passport application.
This is so helpful because you can get it all done in one setting and you don’t have to run around taking multiple photos or trying to take your own because someone messed up.
It was so exciting to finally get our passports in the mail after that seven weeks! We all got to open them up as a family. Let me know in the comments below some of your tips or experiences with getting a passports as a single mom.
Happy vacationing,
Brie
Ps. Just a little bit of blogger advice, but I think it is illegal to post photos of American passports (even just the outside of them). I’m not for sure on this but I’ve heard rumors that it is.
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