Ah the US of A, land where renewing a passport is made so easy that everyone wants to have an up to date one. Seriously, folks, I have renewed UK and Canadian passports, and it is complicated.
See, the KoD’s passport is about to expire, and he needs to renew it. (One should always have a current passport). All he needed to do was fill out the form, take some passport pictures which by law probably have to make you look awful, write a cheque and pop the darn thing in the mail.
In Canada, and the UK, the pictures have to be dated, by the photographer, on the back, and signed by a guarantor who cannot be a member of your family and who has to have known you for at least 2 or 3 years. The guarantor has to fill out a form attesting to his / her knowledge of you, and in what capacity they are signing. They have to be professionals. And yes, they do get checked up on. Not every guarantor is checked, but a lot are. It’s not something you can do within the space of 5 minutes like the US renewal.
The KoD was allowed to keep his glasses on for the pictures – in Canada and the UK, no glasses are allowed, no earrings, no smiling, no excessive make up, no head coverings, and the lips must meet even if you have an overbite or an underbite. Seems to be that it’s easier to renew an American passport than that of any other nationality. I wonder why that is. I would think that they would be hyper-vigilant, but it seems as if it is the other way around.
I cannot wait for the day when I can have a US passport….
In the Pink 