Another small headache over the past couple weeks has been dealing with the fact that my passport expires while I am over here in Germany. So just after I finished taking care of my residency and work permits, I had to figure out how to get my passport renewed because I had some important trips to the US coming up in October and November that I couldn’t have a Passport Renewal process preventing. Luckily, the US Consulate in Munich has a mail-in option to get the passport renewed, and while I was not thrilled with the option of forfeiting my passport to the postal system (after my past dealings with the Spanish post system), I didn’t think it would be possible to go to Munich to take care of it in person. So I filled out the forms and went to the post office.
Here was the first hurdle—trying to send it registered mail. I could only register it one way and I couldn’t prepay to have it registered when it came back. This was something unheard of for me, but after speaking with the US Consulate for the 3rd time, they said it would be alright and that if I sent a prepaid envelope, they would register it. So Saturday August 28th, I crossed my fingers and sent my passport to Munich.
On Friday I got the postcard back that said the passport arrived to the consulate AND a DHL notice saying that I had a package waiting at the office in Jakobsplatz. I went the next day and found my NEW passport waiting for me—everything had been accomplished in a WEEK. Now here’s that German efficiency I’ve been told about. ONLY A WEEK to get a NEW PASSPORT! Fantastic! Now I can travel on the weekends again!! WOO HOO!!!
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