Mrs. ItchyFeet My, oh, my… do I have a story for you! And it involves my passport. You know, that much needed document that allows me to travel to other countries without getting arrested and deported? That important document! The thing about passports is that they don’t last forever. You must renew them before they expire if you want to keep traveling. And, on top of that, many countries will not let you in if your passport expires within three or six months. So effectively, for travel outside your home country, your passport expires six months before the expiration date written on the document.
How did this all start?
My current passport expires in May 2025, (effectively expiring in November of this year). I plan on being back in Seattle in late September. So, in theory, I should be able to renew my passport before heading out of the country. Here’s the problem. Passport renewals can take a long time, depending on current staffing and volume, even if you pay extra to have them expedited. I can’t buy airplane tickets or book lodging at my next destination until I get my hands on a renewed passport. That means tickets and lodging might be a lot more expensive because they are last minute.
That also means that I have to stay in the States for longer than I would like. I have friends and family that I can stay with, but I don’t want to overstay my welcome. As a good friend recently said, guests are like fish… they start to smell after three days. Plus, even with free lodging, food and alcohol are expensive in the Seattle area. I’m currently living on about $3000 USD per month. That’s with plane tickets, travel expenses, excursions, rent, everything. I’m actually pretty proud of myself for that.
I digress. Back to the passport. Okay, so what if I get my passport renewed overseas? Is that doable? It is, but it can take anywhere from six weeks to three months. And you can’t leave until you get that passport back! If I decide to head out to Southeast Asia for 2025, this would be very troublesome. Most countries like Thailand, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka only allow 30 days for a tourist visa. You can apply for a month or two longer, but there are no guarantees. With that in mind, I would need to renew this year.
Where should I get this done?
So how about renewing in México? With the possibility of taking three months to get my passport back, it meant that Guadalajara was out because I was only going to be there for two months. But what about Mazatlán? I will be there for four months and the US Embassy is very close by in case anything goes wrong… or there is an emergency with family or friends in the USA. Perfect. Get all the paperwork done in Guadalajara and send it off immediately upon arriving in Mazatlán.
I found a photo shop that does both Mexican and USA passport photos near my apartment in Guadalajara and walked on over. Passport photos have to be a very specific size with a white background (and you aren’t supposed to smile!). The Mexican photos are very similar, but the gentleman wanted me to take my earrings out. He was very insistent. Is that a thing? I said no, because I was very confident that was not a thing. Turns out, it is a thing, absolutely no jewelry… but for Mexican passports, as well as residency cards, and not USA passports. Phew! I’m certain he, like I, went straight to the Googles immediately after that interaction.
As I was filling out the documents, I realized I couldn’t send my passport in for renewal right when I got to Mazatlán. My cousin had texted me and invited me to Cozumel. My US issued driver’s license was not a valid form of identification for the flight there. I would need my passport to get on a plane. Crap! That meant I couldn’t send in my passport until I got back, and that only gave me three months for the renewal instead of four. Stress.
Costa Rica?
I immediately got on the internets and researched renewing my passport from Costa Rica (due to recent tourist visa changes, I get to stay up to 180 days!). Turns out, it is actually cheaper and might take less time than through México. It’s slightly worrisome though, because Costa Rica doesn’t have addresses. You just have to visit the local post office and tell them to send your passport to the “Embajada de los EE.UU.” in San José and hope for the best. Then they mail your renewed passport back to the same post office in Sámara.
Okay, so right before leaving Mazatlán, I paid for the renewal online ($130 USD), loaded my documents onto a thumb drive, and headed to a printing shop. It cost a peso a page to print, and he let me use his stapler for free to staple the passport photo to the paperwork. How nice is that!?! Now I have everything I need to mail this sucker in once I get to Sámara, Costa Rica.
But you can’t just mail the passport first thing. Turns out that the phone company requires a passport to purchase a local SIM card. They say it is so they know who is calling emergency services, but I suspect it’s so there are no burner phones in Costa Rica. Interesting. Lucky for me, the office is right across the street from my new apartment. In fact, my apartment’s “address” is based on that office… as in the “address” is “50 meters west of the office…”. Pura Vida!
Can I finally mail this thing?!?
SIM card collected (the wait was like an hour, but it was worth it) and verified that it works. But wait… my new apartment manager also needs a copy of my passport. Glad I waited! Time to hit the post office (which is also just across the street!). It’s another hour delay in the post office, but I’m used to that from the States. It’s always an hour wait at the post office. With my broken Spanish, I convey what I need done and fill out and sign all the mailing documents. Everything packaged up, along with my current passport. Total cost is about $18 USD.
With that, I am officially in a foreign country without a passport. That is legitimately scary. A police officer can stop me at any time and ask for identification and I could not provide it. I could go to jail! I could be deported! If anything happens to my friends or family back in the States, it will be awhile before I can return to help. On top of that, I forgot to take a photo of my entrance stamp to Costa Rica, so I currently have no proof that I’m not overstaying my tourist visa. Stress!!!
I have a tracking number that I am obsessively checking a few times a day. I want to make sure that my passport makes it to the embassy in San José and then submitted to the US for processing. The waiting is the worst part. It should take six to eight weeks, but how long do you wait before you start panicking? I don’t like it. On top of that, I’m too worried about being without my passport to go on any excursions. They occasionally have vehicle checkpoints at which I would need ID.
The waiting!
It takes three days for my passport to make it to San José. Not bad. But then I have to wait for almost two weeks for the passport status website to actually reflect that they have received my renewal application. Stress! Nine excruciating days later before the status on the website finally goes from “in process” to “approved”! Yes!!! That means that I didn’t screw anything up with the paperwork, the photo, or the payment. I’m so good. Later that day, the status switched to “mailed”.
Now more waiting and hoping it doesn’t get lost on the way back. It should take about two weeks. The tracking number hasn’t changed, so I can only assume that it is no longer valid. It just worked to get there, but not back. I’ll give it two weeks and then start to panic. Seems reasonable. The post office has my Costa Rican phone number and email address, so they should text me when the passport gets here.
I can’t wait any longer! I want my new passport! Off to the post office exactly two weeks after my status changed to “mailed” only to find it closed for lunch. Which is weird because the sign states that he will be back at 1:30pm and it’s now 2pm. I go to sit on a bench and wait and notice a lady walk in a few minutes later. I peek in and the dude is in there chatting with the lady, so I poke my head in to see if he just forgot to change the sign. They both let me know he’s closed, probably just a friend to chat with on their lunch break. As I turn to leave, he calls me back and asks what I need. Okay.
But I want it!
I let him know what I was looking for, and he pointedly flips through the stack of mail for the day and signals he doesn’t have any mail that matches that description. The lady and he are chatting back and forth and can understand me, but I’m having a hard time with the accent. It’s so fast! They were commenting on my accent while I was there. Guess I picked up a bit of a Mexican accent in the last few months. I leave all sad and dejected for the weekend. I’ll be back… on Tuesday, in fact.
Guess what!?! They have my passport! He again flips through the stack of mail and digs out a passport from the US Embassy. It’s all there in all its magical glory. The post office dude can’t officially use any of the IDs that I currently have, but he asked if my passport was in the package I was receiving. After letting him know it was, he hands it to me to open and then immediately asks for my shiny new passport so he can verify my identity to… receive the package I just opened.
Lots of paperwork later and $13 for some passport insurance that I didn’t know about and I’m out of there with my new (and old/invalidated) passport! Success! That was actually really fast at six weeks total. Once I get home, I happily update my Global Entry info and my plane ticket info for my upcoming trip back to the States.
I’m so happy that I can travel freely again! Now I don’t have to be wary as I take my twice daily strolls past the police station on the way to the beach. Hola, officers! Freedom of movement is a real privilege and I’m excited to have it back… just in time for friends to visit next week. We are going to go on all the adventures!
thank the mail gods! congrats!