The Saga of the Dreaded Passport....
So, i finished up working at Sandy's about 2 weeks ago now, and since then, other than organising my passport for my egypt trip (that was a saga) I've been just house-sitting, riding and otherwise doing nothing. It's been great!!
ok i'm giving up on capitals cause this computer is missing a lot of keys and one of the more annoying ones is the shift key.
so, i had to get my passport for my trip to egypt in january (very excited!!!). it took 6 trips into the post office and i've just been told that i can pick it up once i prove who i am (AGAIN!). see there is this strange phenomenon where whenever i need to prove who i am something has to go wrong.
the first trip to the po -cant be bothered writing it over and over again- was to pick up the form. of all my trips thus far this was the least painful.
trip 2: i had the plan of going to cherrybrook, where i would get my photo done, then get leah to sign it as my guarantor then go to the po and do all the other crap. so i called leah and went to pick her up. she was looking for her passport which i thought she needed to do the form thing. she couldn't find it but her mum offered to do it instead, which meant i would have to get the photo, go back to their house, get her to sign it, then go back to the po for the rest of it. so we trundled off to the shops, got my photo done, went into the po to see if they needed me to make an appointment. they were closing in 5 mins but the guy would look at it. i had all my id stuff in the car so i ran to get that, while he made leah my guarantor (somethiing about being on the electoral role) ran back, turns out i'd forgotten my birth certificate. no go. fair enough, my fault.
3rd trip- had my birth certificate this time. went to the po in dural. need to make an appointment come back in an hour. thanks. came back in an hour and dude had gone to lunch instead cause i was 3 minutes late. great.
4th trip-went to richmond po this time (just felt the need to change each time) turns out that because i was born after june 86 i wasnt necessarily an australian citizen just by being born hear and needed to prove that one of my parents was an aussie when i was born. well my dad is useless so no point asking him to look for his birth certificate. mum was born in italy so needed a citizenship certificate or a passport issued after june 86. couldn't find cert so went for passport...
5th trip-same po passport doesnt count because it was issued after i was born. also there's apparently now a problem with the photo- the rim of my rim-less glasses was intersecting my eye-socket!! get real! am ready to start pulling punches at this woman, calmly say to her 'so you're telling me that if my mother didn't have a passport issued between june 86 and january 88 we have to go prove who SHE is so SHE can get a new citizenship certificate to prove who I am??" she just shrugged and nodded.
6th trip in and i was not leaving the po with my forms. they were taking it if had to threaten them with a knife!! in the previous week we had somehow managed to find the stupid certificate so i was pretty certain. went to a different po again in case stupid woman commented on my photo again. this guy ticked all the little boxes, got to the photo and paused. he wasn't sure. he called the passport office (im holding my breath) and YES that photo will count!!!! he takes my form to send it off BOUT BLOODY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so you can see why im so nervous about proving who i am to pick it up!!!!!!!!
anyway, that is the saga of the passport. GAR! the irony at the end of all this: if i had been born in china, and become an australian citizen, that certificate would have been all i would have needed. no birth certificate, drivers license, old passport, car rego, medicare card, no parents stuff, one trip only!!!
so now i have to go to consulates (sp?) to get visas for egypt and jordan. should be fun!!!
ok i'm giving up on capitals cause this computer is missing a lot of keys and one of the more annoying ones is the shift key.
so, i had to get my passport for my trip to egypt in january (very excited!!!). it took 6 trips into the post office and i've just been told that i can pick it up once i prove who i am (AGAIN!). see there is this strange phenomenon where whenever i need to prove who i am something has to go wrong.
the first trip to the po -cant be bothered writing it over and over again- was to pick up the form. of all my trips thus far this was the least painful.
trip 2: i had the plan of going to cherrybrook, where i would get my photo done, then get leah to sign it as my guarantor then go to the po and do all the other crap. so i called leah and went to pick her up. she was looking for her passport which i thought she needed to do the form thing. she couldn't find it but her mum offered to do it instead, which meant i would have to get the photo, go back to their house, get her to sign it, then go back to the po for the rest of it. so we trundled off to the shops, got my photo done, went into the po to see if they needed me to make an appointment. they were closing in 5 mins but the guy would look at it. i had all my id stuff in the car so i ran to get that, while he made leah my guarantor (somethiing about being on the electoral role) ran back, turns out i'd forgotten my birth certificate. no go. fair enough, my fault.
3rd trip- had my birth certificate this time. went to the po in dural. need to make an appointment come back in an hour. thanks. came back in an hour and dude had gone to lunch instead cause i was 3 minutes late. great.
4th trip-went to richmond po this time (just felt the need to change each time) turns out that because i was born after june 86 i wasnt necessarily an australian citizen just by being born hear and needed to prove that one of my parents was an aussie when i was born. well my dad is useless so no point asking him to look for his birth certificate. mum was born in italy so needed a citizenship certificate or a passport issued after june 86. couldn't find cert so went for passport...
5th trip-same po passport doesnt count because it was issued after i was born. also there's apparently now a problem with the photo- the rim of my rim-less glasses was intersecting my eye-socket!! get real! am ready to start pulling punches at this woman, calmly say to her 'so you're telling me that if my mother didn't have a passport issued between june 86 and january 88 we have to go prove who SHE is so SHE can get a new citizenship certificate to prove who I am??" she just shrugged and nodded.
6th trip in and i was not leaving the po with my forms. they were taking it if had to threaten them with a knife!! in the previous week we had somehow managed to find the stupid certificate so i was pretty certain. went to a different po again in case stupid woman commented on my photo again. this guy ticked all the little boxes, got to the photo and paused. he wasn't sure. he called the passport office (im holding my breath) and YES that photo will count!!!! he takes my form to send it off BOUT BLOODY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so you can see why im so nervous about proving who i am to pick it up!!!!!!!!
anyway, that is the saga of the passport. GAR! the irony at the end of all this: if i had been born in china, and become an australian citizen, that certificate would have been all i would have needed. no birth certificate, drivers license, old passport, car rego, medicare card, no parents stuff, one trip only!!!
so now i have to go to consulates (sp?) to get visas for egypt and jordan. should be fun!!!
MoNoPoLiSeD @ 8:46 am
3 comments
