I haven't posted for months. So sue me. I'm not the only pseudo-blogger out there who takes a break!
But there are a couple/three (as my grandma would have said) things I want to say something about, so here goes with one of them:
On December 18th 2008 I submitted my ratty, well worn, analog, nearly expired passport together with a renewal application to the passport office here for replacement with a shiny new, smaller e-passport.
First, it's a confusing experience if you've not been there before. At the time there was no indication of where to present what, no signs on the wall explaining anything, and not even the receptionist had a sign over the dark, mirrored glass hiding who (or what) might be behind it.
I arrived at around 1:30 PM and, since it was straight ahead, ended up doing what I was supposed to do, left my documents with the receptionist and received a number hand-written on a sticky post-it note. The call-up number display on the wall wasn't lit and apparently wasn't working.
Over to the banks of plastic chairs to wait to hear my number - something which was almost impossible since the sole person attending the one active window out of six on the long wall could hardly be heard when he called them out.
We Bahamians are such delightfully social animals that at least whatever number he called out was being repeated loudly by those closest to the window, so I settled in to a conversation with an ex-colleague who I hadn't seen in years and got to meet her fine young son.
Again - at this point there is nothing on the walls explaining the process. No flyer handed out with the post-it-note number. And little guidance from the people around you since most of them are in the same boat.
OK ... by 3:00 or so (reasonable, I guess, given that there was only person staffing the windows) I'm called, fingerprinted, photographed and handed the filing receipt, but with a pick-up date of Feb. 2, 2009.
Ouch ... that's 7 weeks in the future!
I tell the guy that I have to travel on Jan 23rd, and that I've had the tickets since mid November. "No problem," he says, "just bring in the ticket at least a week before you're to travel and you should be able to get a travel document".
It sounded straightforward ... so I paid my $50.00 to absolutely delightful (I really mean it) cashier, and left. And Christmas came and went. And the New Year came and went.
I happened to be in the Oakes Field area about 10 days before the trip, so I stopped in. Got told it was a heck of a lot more iffy than I had been led to believe. The first receptionist who dealt with me was very pleasant, told me to bring back the filing receipt and ticket. So I did, the next day. Someone else, not nearly as pleasant, tells me I need a formal letter of request as well. I go back to the bank, write the letter, head back out and realise I'd left the ticket back at the office! Another 1 hour round trip ... this time with ticket, letter and filing receipt.
I dropped it all off on the Thursday before the trip, and we assured it would be considered by the Head of the Passport Office and someone would call me. Four roundtrips - four hours of Wulf Road traffic - and still I'll live with crossed fingers until I have the new passport in my hands!
Next Tuesday no-one has called, so I head out to check. Receptionist checks and says come back after three o'clock on Thursday (remember I'm travelling Friday ...).
In the meantime I'm in panic ... checking whether I could cancel airline tickets and reservations at Disney, etc. But Thursday at three I'm there. All they'll say at the beginning is that they're "trying to get you straight Mr. Roberts". Scary!
For an hour or so no-one really tells me much of anything. Sweaty palms!!!
Around 4:50 Mr. Franklyn Dames, the guy in charge, comes out to say they had found my application misfiled and not to worry, they'd take care of me. So sorry.
Didn't stop me from worrying! There I sat for another 15 minutes or so still wondering if I'd be travelling the next day or not.
Then around 5:10 or so Mr. Dames comes out, sits down next to me, and assures me that I'd be going home with my new, blue, e-passport! We had an interesting conversation and I can't say enough about my appreciation for how this saga all ended up.
Bottom line, I guess, is that we hear so many horror stories - and this one isn't pretty all the way from start to finish - but it was indeed refreshing to be handled courteously by smiling civil servants even at the end of a long stressful day. Totally unexpected, but totally welcome. And I went home around 5:30 ready to fly on the 23rd.
And when I get one of those "round tuits" I'll tell a positive story about BahamasAir, too!
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2 comments:
I wish that I could say the same thing, but I cannot. My son passport was in from December of 2008 and I have yet to have it in my hands. I live on the Island of
Eleuthera so I do't have time to keep going to Nassau and still not get it. I left a not for my sister to get the passpost she was told the three times after they said the same thing to my brother -in law to come back next week. If someone can read this please be to your word this is a business and you need to do better.
Waiting for son passport
Eleuthera
It took me from January to October to get my new e-passport, all because of a hyphen in my name that they'd left off the old passport.Hopefully, now that I have it, the next one in ten years will be simpler.
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