City of Albany

Tina Goldsmith

Passport Services: About half an hour after my appointment time, it was at last my turn to submit my passport application. The clerk greeted me by ripping my application out of my hands and snarling that I needed to fill out another one. By default, Adobe Acrobat prints the online application at 99% and the Department of State apparently can't deal with the 1% discrepancy. (Dear Department of State: This is ridiculous. Either design a form that can be printed on printers other than yours, or instruct applicants to pick up an application at the post office or wherever. Thank you.) So the clerk and I didn't get off to the best start. Then the games began in earnest. At one point, she instructed me to put the wrong information on my check. When I referred her to contrary instructions from the Dept. of State, I could almost see the steam coming out of her ears. When I gave her my photos, she declared that they were obviously more than six months old. No, actually, they were taken two months ago. And so on. A month later, the Dept. of State sent me a letter saying that they couldn't use my photos because they were more than six months old. I wonder where they got their information? I sent them my receipt indicating that the photos were taken two months before I applied. And so on. At last we come to the happy ending: Dear readers, I received my passport today despite the best efforts of Albany City Hall. The moral of this story? If your idea of a good time is to wait three months and spend almost $200 for the privilege of playing mind games with a passive-aggressive saboteur, then by all means, go to Albany City Hall. Otherwise, take your passport business elsewhere.

Jasmine Turner

My Place of Work