Passport Application Mistake Ruins Family’s Trip - Expedited Passports

A Colorado woman’s passport application mistake provides a stark reminder of the importance of having the correct documents when you travel. According to 9News.com, when Lara Marxhausen went to apply for passports for herself and her family for an upcoming trip to Mexico, the post office clerk suggested she save money by getting a passport card instead.

Passport cards are significantly cheaper. If you’re an adult who has never had a passport before, you’ll pay only $55 if you apply for a passport card, compared to $135 if you apply for a full-sized passport.

Unfortunately, passport cards cannot be used for air travel. They are only good for land and sea travel to and from Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean. The post office clerk apparently failed to mention this limitation to Ms. Marxhausen. So, when the Marxhausen family went to the airport to catch their flight to Mexico, they were turned away.

Marxhausen told 9News, “I know the burden of proof or the burden of making sure I had the right things does fall upon on me. But I feel I asked for help in this system and was led down an erroneous path.”

To make sure you don’t end up on an erroneous path, read Passports vs. Passport Cards to help clarify the differences between the two documents.

If you end up stranded with a passport card when you need a passport, you do have a couple of options that could potentially save your vacation, or at least part of it, depending on when you catch the error.

One option is to make an appointment at a Regional Passport Agency office. As long as your flight leaves in 2 weeks or less and you still need a passport, you can make an appointment at one of these facilities to get an emergency passport. Unfortunately, there are only 21 passport agency offices in the country and they have somewhat limited hours of operation, so you may have a hard time fitting an appointment into your schedule.

The second option is to use a private passport expediting company like RushMyPassport. Here’s how it works-you send us your passport application, and we’ll personally deliver it to the Department of State, for processing times as quick as 24 hours.

Submit your passport application with us today!

A UK woman got a bit of a surprise when she opened the envelope containing her new passport. According to the Manchester Evening News, the document she received had her name…but her husband’s face!

Terence and Marilyn Walker apparently sent off their passport renewal applications at the same time. His was processed correctly, but hers came back with the wrong passport photo.  Instead of her passport photo, the passport agency had placed a photo of her husband.

Mrs. Walker told the Manchester Evening News,  “I was flabbergasted. I thought I had picked up my husband’s passport by accident and then I saw it. I couldn’t believe they would make such a simple mistake.”

She has been asked to redo her passport application and provide new passport pictures.

Although this happened across the pond, the US Department of State occasionally makes mistakes and printing errors as well.

To fix a printing error on a US passport, complete passport form DS-5504. Send it in with evidence of the mistake (a copy of your birth certificate, marriage certificate or perhaps a court order, depending on what needs to be corrected.)

The US Department of State corrects printing errors free of charge. You can use this form to correct an error at any time while the passport is valid, although if it is due to expire in the next year you may wish to go ahead and apply for a passport renewal.

The US Department of State does not charge for correcting printing errors, and passports that need to be corrected are given priority, so processing times are about the same for correcting errors as they are for the government’s expedited service. You can expect to wait about 3 weeks to get your new passport back in the mail.

If you need your passport corrected more quickly, you have two options: Make an appointment at a US passport agency office, or use  a private passport expediting company. For many people, the extra fee paid to the expediting company is worth it because it they don’t have to take time off work or travel to a Regional Passport Agency office, which could easily be quite expensive if you don’t have one nearby.

RushMyPassport will hand-deliver your paperwork to the Department of State, cutting processing times to as little as 24 hours.

Apply for your new passport today!