By Andrea Sachs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Are they selling Springsteen tickets at the Washington Passport Agency?
Judging by the lines outside the passport office, which wrap around the sidewalk like a corn maze, something big has been happening over there in recent weeks. Unfortunately, it's more serious than a concert by the Boss.
As many of those who are traveling abroad know too well, new regulations that require passports for Americans flying to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Bahamas and Bermuda have caused a major backlog in applications. Even though the State Department recently relaxed the rules for those traveling to these countries through September, the wait to receive a passport has stretched from the standard four to six weeks to 12 weeks . . . or longer.
To catch up on the mountain of paperwork, the agency has extended the hours at some passport offices across the country, contacted overseas offices for volunteers, recruited retirees to return to duty, encouraged other State Department employees to pitch in, and trained and assigned summer interns to passport services, according to Michele Bond, the State Department's public affairs director for consular affairs. "The bottom line is: We need more people to be doing this, and we have been bringing more people onboard for months," Bond said last week.
And still the lines barely move.
On Monday morning, outside the Washington Passport Agency at 1111 19th St. NW, the sense of urgency was palpable. About 200 anxious travelers had formed three lines before the doors even opened at 8 a.m. -- one for those with appointments, another for applicants with letters from a senator or congressman, and a long, snaking queue for people without a confirmed time. In total, Bond said, nearly 625 Americans would visit the agency that day.
All had one thing in common: Their trips were scheduled to begin in three days or less. Some could even count on one hand the number of hours remaining before their flights left. As the minutes ticked by, mini dramas unfolded, with many would-be travelers leaving empty-handed and others waving their small blue books triumphantly.
8:11 a.m. Sarah Katz-Hyman, 17, and her parents are surprisingly good-natured, considering that they've been standing in line since 4:30 a.m. Sarah, of Newport News, Va., is scheduled to leave for Israel in less than 24 hours. She submitted her passport application 12 weeks ago. When it didn't show up, the family contacted Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-Va.), who wrote a letter that allows Sarah to wait in the "congressional line" -- a major coup.
8:25 Marcus Letourneau, a 31-year-old garden department supervisor from College Park who is set to leave for Mexico in two days, half-jokes about having to take the train across the border if his passport does not materialize soon. His girlfriend, Laura Messing, 21, gloats that her passport is in order. However, her driver's license is expiring, and she must race up to the New Jersey DMV before their flight. It's a toss-up as to whose bureaucratic experience will be worse.
8:34 Paul Miles pushes his small suitcase forward an inch. The 32-year-old aircraft mechanic from Annandale must leave here with passports for his children Arianna and Noah by 1 p.m. in time to catch the 2 o'clock Auto Train to Florida, where his family awaits his arrival. If he misses the train, his six-month missionary trip to Argentina will be in jeopardy. "I'm nervous," he says. "If I miss the train, I'll have to pay more than $2,000 in [airline] tickets."
9:12"If you are leaving after Wednesday, get out of the line," a guard proclaims. No one budges.
9:18 Aneela Khan, a 23-year-old student from Silver Spring, demonstrates what will happen if the agency denies her 1-year-old a passport and they cannot go to Dubai. "I'm just going to scream at them." She demonstrates a Fay Wray shriek. No one around her blinks an eye.
9:25 Little Druselita Randolph is sleeping sweetly in her stroller; she has been napping since she and her mother, Vanessa Randolph, arrived nearly two hours ago. Randolph nibbles her daughter's peanut butter crackers.
9:39 Adrienne Egge of Alexandria settles back in her canvas folding chair with a John Grisham novel. The 21-year-old University of Virginia student is expected at her Madrid au pair job in two days. With her bottle of water and backup book ("The Great Gatsby"), she's in it for the long haul.
9:42 Avery Zorn, 19, exits the facility without the prize. The Europe-bound student has driven seven hours from Asheville, N.C., to correct a misspelling on his passport -- the agency had transformed "Zorn" into "Zan." But the revised document is not ready, and Zorn is told to return at 11 a.m.
9:47 Marcus Letourneau enters the building.
10:15 Tera Mikula, 36, of Stevensville, Md., is the sole person in the queue designated for those who have a confirmed appointment. Mikula needs her passport so she can attend a conference in Venice on Wednesday. She's already rescheduled her flight once. "I've been in tears because it is so stressful. It's just a renewal."
10:45 Inside the agency, Paul Miles slumps under a counter on the hard floor. He has just over two hours to make his train.
11:02 Marcus Letourneau glances at his number -- D51. He is six spots away from being called to a window and knowing whether he is flying or taking the train to Mexico.
11:19 An electronic ticker that runs along the wall flashes red: "The estimated wait time is 39 minutes." But that's not counting the time spent waiting outside and signing in at the first of three stations.
11:38 Adrienne Egge has five pages left in her Grisham novel.
11:40 It's a no-go for Marcus Letourneau. He's told he must return the next day to see if his passport has been approved -- or, if it hasn't, to get his birth certificate back.
11:50 Paul Miles learns that his children's passports are "upstairs" but aren't yet ready. He leans against the wall, his bag and black motorcycle helmet sitting beside him like loyal pets.
11:52 Tera Mikula whooshes out to the nearby Office Depot, where she must print out a copy of her canceled check to prove that she paid the expedited fee.
12:17 There's a meltdown at Counter No. 11. Vanessa Randolph, mother of baby Druselita, who is now awake and playing with her toes, swaps strong words with the passport employee. Randolph claims the employee called her petulant and dismissed her; the official counters that Randolph was not following orders. "She said I was rude and told me to go away," Randolph weeps. Druselita, no longer amused by her feet, joins her mom in tears.
12:22 Tera Mikula has returned and is leaving again. She was told that, yes, her check cleared, but she needs to come back later in the afternoon to pick up her passport. But since it takes four hours or so to process the passport, it probably won't be ready before the agency closes its doors at 3 p.m. She opts to return on Wednesday at 7:30 a.m., the morning of her flight.
12:27 Success for Germantown's Richard Harris, a 40-year-old landscape contractor who'd had to cancel his flight to Barbados the day before. "I am leaving today, on the soonest flight that can take me."
12:33 Avery Zorn, correctly spelled passport in hand, is headed for Amsterdam, by way of North Carolina.
12:41 The ticker reads: "The estimated wait time is 71 minutes."
1:01 A voice over the loudspeaker announces, "Will the parent of Arianna and Noah please come to the counter?" Two minutes later, Paul Miles dashes out of the Washington Passport Agency, luggage in one hand and kids' passports in the other. He just might make his train, and his plane to Argentina.
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