Always check your passport expiration before you book an international trip

Better yet, why not go and check your passport expiration now and put a little reminder maybe 6 months before it in your calendar to make sure you review it in time.  Even if you’re always responsible and always do these types of things.  Even if you never forget.  Because we were the people who never forget and now we’re the people who can tell you how to try to renew your passport in Seattle in 24 hours if you don’t check your passport expiration and your plane is on its way to Italy.

Check your whole family’s passport expiration ASAP

This whole ordeal started two nights before we left on our international trip.  The hubby and I had put the kids to bed and we were sitting in our Seattle living room looking at a pile of half-packed suitcases going over the last details of our trip together.  The hubby was trying out a new FREE passport app called Mobile Passport that he had heard was faster than Global Entry which we love to use when we travel.  When he started inputting the kids’ data he nearly dropped his phone.

“It is 2018?!!” He gasped. “How is it 2018?!!”

Somehow even though we checked our passports we had forgotten to check the kids’ passports when we booked our trip and they had actually expired weeks ago. Suddenly we realized we may not be going on a trip at all.  We started googling frantically to figure out if there was even a glimmer of hope.  We had 24 hours to fix this problem and things looked really bleak.

Thankfully we found an article by Business Insider that not only told us what to do, but saved us a ton of money and gave us peace of mind.  The biggest bit of help the article gave was that it told us not to use the last-minute passport services that were the top hits showing up in our searches.  We could renew our passports in 24 hours with an emergency passport request as long as there was a nearby passport office and in Seattle there is the Seattle Passport Agency downtown. We immediately booked the first appointment we could get in the morning and thankfully there was one at 8:30am.  The other option was to walk-in and so we decided we would show up before the office opened at 8am to make sure we had the most time possible.

Make sure you read the site carefully and come prepared.

First we checked if we were eligible.  Then we filled out all the paperwork online.  We compiled all the forms and documents we needed to bring.  For emergency service like this you also need proof of travel like an airplane ticket to Italy.  For kids, we read that both parents need to show up at the Seattle Passport Agency too.  If one parent can’t come, the other parent needs a notorized document from the parent who doesn’t attend, so our whole family woke up at 6am and headed to get our passport photos taken before we went to the Passport Agency.  This was a big deal and we wanted to make sure we did it right.

Can someone please make a passport photo app?

The biggest barrier to getting our passport happened because of the passport photos we took.  I looked for a 24 hour passport photos center and chose a national drugstore chain and we showed up around 6am with two tired kids.  Thankfully the person taking the photos reassured us they had taken many passport photos, but as the process wore on we weren’t too sure.  The photos of my kids’ heads on the printing queue screen looked a lot smaller than the photos we saw for other people in the queue who had taken photos at some point before us.  I began to worry but we were told that no one had ever come back saying their photo didn’t work.  Well, our photos did not work.  When we entered the passport office after waiting outside for 20 minutes, checked through security and arrived 2nd in line for passport services we were told that our kids’ heads in their passport photos were too small.  This is the step that frustrates me the most-if you go to an authorized passport photo service, shouldn’t it have to be done correctly? We were told that the closest passport photo center was actually in the deli in the building and when we got there we were told these photos were pricey but guaranteed.  (I noticed that there was notary services available at this deli too!)

Yes, you can get a passport in 24 hours

We returned to the passport office photos in hand and went through the paperwork with an agent.  By the afternoon we were able to return and pick up passports for the kids.  Passports in 24 hours.  But I would never want to go through the stress of this again.  In hindsight the hubby and I made an even bigger mistake.  We had a fortuitous excuse to escape to Italy for a week-long child-free vacation and we totally blew it.  (Dear kids when you read this, I guess we must love you a bunch….)

(PS. This was just our experience of forgetting to renew our passports and every situation is going to be different.  I am thankful that the 24 hour thing worked out but we were equally prepared to lose everything and I wanted to share our experience just in case someone out there is stressfully googling the same problem and maybe offer some reassurance that there might be hope. We have now set reminders on all our devices to tell us 6 months before our passports expire so we don’t do this again.)

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)