On Friday, we woke the kids up at 5:30 AM so we could drive to Paris. We had an appointment at the US Embassy to renew the four youngest kids’ passports — Olive, Oscar, Betty, and Flora June. I spent many hours prepping for our appointment, and happily it went very smoothly. (Big sigh of relief!) The woman who was assisting us thanked me for being so organized and prepared and I’m only slightly exaggerating when I say I’ve never felt more proud. : ) She said it would take about ten days to process and then the Embassy will mail the new passports to our house, which means we won’t need to go back to Paris to pick them up.
In the past, when we’ve needed to renew passports, we’ve always been living the U.S., so this was our first time reapplying from a foreign country. We’ve heard that the passport processing time in the States is currently 8 weeks or longer, so I’m guessing they must have a speedier process for people who are living abroad. Which makes sense I guess — it’s nerve-wracking to know that our kids currently don’t have a passport (and won’t for another two weeks) and we are in another country.
If you haven’t applied for a passport for a child before, you might not know this, but for kids, passports only last for 5 years — for adults, they last for 10 years. So you have to reapply every 5 years until they are age 16. After 16, the next time they apply, their passport will last for 10 years. Oscar turned 16 last week, so he and Olive will receive 10 year passports, and Betty and Flora June will receive 5 year versions. Something else to keep in mind: for children, if there are two parents, both must be present when you apply for a passport (you can get a special form notarized ahead of your appointment if that’s not possible).
Have you ever visited a US Embassy abroad? I’ve only visited the one in Paris, and this is only the second time I’ve ever been. It’s very near the Obelisk at the Place de la Concorde. I find the experience of visiting the Embassy quite intimidating. The security is intense! You can’t bring in your laptop, or any food (even packaged food in your bag — like we had some Reeses that Olive had brought us). They watch you turn off your phone before you come on the grounds, and even then, they take your phone and don’t return it until you leave. So there is absolutely no photo-taking on the grounds or inside the building. And of course, lots of metal detectors.
Once I was inside, I thought it might feel fancy, but really it feels mostly like the DMV. Hah! (I’m guessing there are fancier parts of the building that I did not get to see.)
In case you’re curious, on Friday, the Embassy did not have a portrait of a Biden up yet (at least, we didn’t see one), but there was no sign of Trump either. So perhaps they were in-between portraits. : )
When we first moved to France, we got a passport for Flora June when she was six months old! So she had a baby picture on her passport until we renewed it at age five. Kids change A LOT between 6 months and 5 years. I’ve been thinking about that for Oscar too. He’ll have a passport with a photo of himself at age 16 when he’s using his passport at 25. I imagine he’ll look quite different then.
Have you ever applied for passports for your kids? What was the experience like for you? And have you ever visited a U.S. Embassy when you were traveling? Maybe you lost your passport and had to get an emergency one?
P.S. — Here are some of the Instagram Stories I shared from the day in Paris (watching them feels like a mini-trip to France!). There are more if you want to watch them on Instagram (this widget doesn’t show anything where I add music — and I add music quite a bit):
