US passport nightmare

[Mrs. B 0]

I finally decided to apply for my passport and my 3 sons passports..

after making all the paperwork (similar to the packs I used to send for all this immigration thing), cover letter, and blabla

I follow the instructions that Department of State gives (one check per application), I went to the post office (milwaukee) and I should have known things would go south when the woman said WE OPEN UNTIL 10am!!

I looked at the sign and was about to point at it when another employee tells her we do accept passports at 9am, the woman argued with the dude and was telling him IT IS SAT... and she just stopped and said opps it is thrusday..

I should just have turned away in that instant BUT NO.. i gave her the paperwork, and she said THIS IS TOO MUCH PAPERWORK, I try to explain to her, and she shut me up and said she was trying to figure things out... so I bite my tongue, when she finally ask me why there where copies I said because the original is on MY application.. after that she said the ID photocopy is missing, I just pointed it at her and she went ohh yeah here it is...

then when I ask for the OVERNIGHT fee so that it would be sent back to home in a safe way, she argued with me that that was EXPEDITE and that was the only way..

so I just dropped that too...

then she was arguing on the wording of the "sole custody" I tried explaining to her that since it was a translation it wouldnt say exactly how it would be said in one that is written in english to start with...

then she tells me $400 check in order to Department of State (2 adults, 2 kids), I ask her again, since it was 380$ and she argued that 110+110+80+80 WAS $400!!!! the other employee, told her hmmm NO it is not...

so she mumbled again...

of course I kept on saying "don't worry it is fine" with a smile that was really hurting me but decided it could only go worst if I fought with her...

then I ask how would i put the name and birth certificate on the checks (since they told me only one was needed -and when I read that DOS said clearly to put name and dob!!) she said,,, NOOOO that isn't important just put the dates of birth two by two and the names aren't needed....

*sighs*

and to top it all, once I came home, wishing I wouldn't have gone to that place...

I said MAN... i forgot to write on the 4 applications the height and weight of everyone!

GO ME! and I checked and rechecked everything and just failed to fill that...

I just CANT believe it...

just when I thought being a citizen wouldn't get me as much stress as being a resident...

bla..

[NickD 203]

See that they included a hand filled DS-11 with my stepdaughters citizen packet, everything we ever sent to the government has been typed, so pitched it. Went to the DOS site to download a fillable form, they don't have that either. But give you page by page instructions with explanations if you need it, but won't let you advance to the next page until every blank is filled. Can save the form and print it out, but I noticed one error I made, and even using Acrobat Pro, would not let me change it.

Had to go back to the site and fill it out again, but was able to copy and paste most of the information from the filled out form. Don't have to be concerned about caps, its all caps regardless of what you type. Anyway, only took a couple of minutes to redo it, and I have should have carefully read the summary the first time. Still don't know why they want you to print out all six pages, only two of them are the form, the rest all instructions. It is good to read those as well. First time, I forgot to type in her height, it wouldn't let me go to the next page until I did.

Told my stepdaughter she had two choices, either the city clerk or the post office. She chose the post office, I suggested the city clerk office, post office always has a line, no privacy, and property tax collection is history at the end of January, so she went there, she was the only one there. So everything did go smooth.