Passport question

[flutterbee]

While easy child was at his dad's (K), K took easy child to get a passport (unbeknownst to me) for a cruise they are going on in the summer. Now, I could have easily taken him for a passport here, but they insisted. I didn't find out until after easy child came home.

They put down easy child's permanent address as his dad's address in Georgia. That is not easy child's permanent address; he is only there a couple of weeks a year.

I don't trust my ex as far as I can spit - and I've never won any spitting contests - and this does not sit well with me at all.

Should I and can I (without costing me a lot of money) do anything about this? I would be more than happy to take him to get a passport and have it done correctly. And you know, all legal and proper and stuff.

 

[mrscatinthehat]

My undeerstanding was that if you have a child under 18 and the parents are divorced the other parent has to sign a waiver to get the passport done. How would your ex have gotten around that? I could be wrong but that was what I thought.

Beth

 

[mrscatinthehat]

Sorry I was wrong it is under 14 that is the case.

http://www.usps.com/passport/

here is a site that will give you information on passports with a handy question area.

Beth

 

[mrscatinthehat]

http://www.travel.state.gov/passport/get/first/first_830.html

This has even better information on it.

 

[flutterbee]

Thanks, Beth. I'm going to look further when I'm feeling more up to it. I would think when you apply for a passport they would do some kind of background check and are going to find his social security number associated with our address in Ohio. But, I don't know what all they check for.

 

[donna723]

I don't profess to know a lot about this - far from it. But I do know that, depending on the destination, you don't even need a passport to go on most cruises now!

My daughter and sister in law had booked a 7-day cruise for last September, going to ports in the Bahamas, Mexico and several places in South America. At the time, you needed a passport for this kind of trip and my daughter had applied for hers way last February because it was taking up to six months to get one (sister in law already had his). What they told her, the passport was NOT to go on the cruise, it was to be able to get back in to the country when they returned! With all the new regulations, the passport offices were hopelessly log-jammed, people having to cancel long-planned vacations, etc. And while she was waiting for hers to come in, they CHANGED the regulations and she no longer needed one to go on their planned cruise. She went ahead and got it anyway because sister in law travels out of the country once in a while for business and, with a passport, she could go with him sometimes.

Also, when applying for her passport, she needed piles and piles of documentation, some that I needed to get from our local courthouse here and mail to her, and lots of other things she had to send off for before she could even apply for the passport. She needed proof of every address she's ever had, a certified copy of her birth certificate, marriage license, even paperwork on a name change she had as a kid. It takes forever to round all this up. Would your ex have all these? I'd be checking up too! This all sounds very, very suspicious!

 

[donna723]

Me again ... What I was trying to say with all that is that it still takes MONTHS to actually get a passport, even now. If he had all the documentation they require - which is a lot - he may have APPLIED for the passport, but if he just did it, he wouldn't actually have it yet.

It took my daughter weeks and weeks to gather all her documentation, then she had to go to the passport office and apply. She was still calling me with more questions while she was standing in line! Then, after she finally had her application turned in, it still took several months before she actually got it. You don't just go in to the passport office and come home with a passport.

Do you have custody? If you do, since he is still a minor, would your ex not have to have your permission to take him out of the country????

 

[Kathy813]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">She needed proof of every address she's ever had, a certified copy of her birth certificate, marriage license, even paperwork on a name change she had as a kid. It takes forever to round all this up. Would your ex have all these? I'd be checking up too! This all sounds very, very suspicious! </div></div>

donna,

I got my passport last year because we were going to go on a cruise and at that point passports were still going to be required.

I didn't need a marraige license or proof of name change or record of address changes. I did have to send for an "official" birth certificate since the hosptial one that I had was not accepted. Other than that, I just needed my license. It only took 6 weeks to get the passport which surprised me since I had read about long waits. I did have to fill out some paperwork saying that I had lost my previous passport from when I was a teenager.

I was a little perturbed because I was in line to turn in the paperwork at 2:30 and the woman told me that I would have to come back since she was closing. I pointed out that the hours on the door said that they were open until 3 but she said by the time she was done with the people ahead of me it would be three. She told me that I would be better off to make an appointment so that is what I did.

Other than that, it all went very smoothly.

~Kathy

 

[donna723]

Huh! I wonder why my daughter had to come up with all that? Basically she had to prove that she was who she said she was and lived where she said she did. The marriage license was to show why her last name had been changed to what it is now. And the other was to show proof of a legal name change back when when she was 18. Complicated, but my first husbands name (not her dad) was on her birth certificate and we had it legally changed when she was 18. They even demanded to know my first husbands full name, date of birth and where he was born! Maybe yours was different because you had one before?

 

[witzend]

You should Google the US Passport. It will take you to the State Department. That passport was illegally obtained if he did not already have signed by you and notarized a DS-3053, Permission to Obtain a Passport form.

Honestly, they don't particularly care about the "permanent address" part, but might not like that he did it without your knowledge and permission and in another state. There's also a form that you can fill out and send "along with the passport" within the first year of issue to make changes in identifying information. Both of those services are free. I think you should go to the State Department's Passport page, find the "Contact Us" number at the bottom, tell them he didn't have your permission, you have sole legal and physical custody, and that you want them to change the address on the passport.

The bug in that ointment is that he will be required to fill out the DS-3053 for you to do that, and you have to have the passport to send to them for the change. The money part comes into the fight between the two of you.

 

[Kathy813]

The previous one was in my teens and had my maiden name on it so I don't think that was it. According to the website, all you need is a certified birth certificate and one other piece of government issued ID like a driver's license.

All I can think about in your daughter's case is that she changed her name at 18 and then again when she married. Maybe all those name changes sent up a red flag?

They did get a little upset when I couldn't produce the expired passport from 35 years ago. Who the heck could? So I had to sign a paper saying that it was lost. Then they asked me what state it was lost in. Gee, I've lived in NY, FL, IL, and Georgia. It must have been in one of them.
:rofl:
I probably just threw it out since it was expired. I didn't know you were supposed to keep them and turn them in.

I agree with Witz that the permanent address shouldn't be a big problem since people move all of the time. I don't think that I would even worry about it unless it could become a custody issue.

~Kathy

 

[flutterbee]

I do have sole physical custody, but joint legal custody.

Since he is 16, ex didn't need my permission from what I've been reading. easy child says they just used his birth certificate. I asked him if he had to show them his ID (his permit) and he said no, so I'm not sure what they used to prove identity cause the birth certificate just proves citizenship.

Like I said, I just don't trust my ex at all. But, since easy child is 16 and will be 17 by the time they go on this cruise, I don't think there is a whole lot he can do re: custody. He has had easy child down there before and threatened not to return him, but I make him send me notice in writing of visitation times and I keep that and the divorce papers. I've had to call the sheriff's office where ex lives before and they said that if I come down there with those papers they will escort me to ex's to get easy child. I've not had to do it yet because just letting ex know that I would was enough to get him to change his tune. However, I never let easy child go down with visitation in writing and I always have my divorce papers with me just in case.

 

[donna723]

That may have had something to do with it in my daughters case. She's lived in three different states and had two name changes - but that's not uncommon for womens names to change!

I think they tightened up the passport regulations considerably after the 9/11 happenings. But it resulted in such a backup that it was supposedly taking 6 to 8 months to get a passport and people were having to cancel vacations they'd already paid for, etc. She applied when the stricter regulations were still in force, and under those rules she would have had to have a passport for their cruise, but then the rules changed while her application was in process. That's the way I understood it anyway. Not that I will ever have first-hand experience ... the only way I will ever get to go on a cruise is if I'm a stow-away!

 

[Kathy813]

That was about the same time that I got mine. I remember because after I spent $100 on a passport, the rules were changed again and I didn't need it after all.

On top of that, my husband was laid off and we had to cancel the cruise.

So all I ended up with was a $100 passport and no place to go.

:rofl:

Want to go on a cruise with me, Donna? Maybe we could make it a virtual CD cruise ~ no passports required.

~Kathy

 

[donna723]

:rofl:
That's probably the only way I'll ever get to go on a cruise - if it's a "virtual" cruise paid for by "virtual" money! So I suppose I'd only need a "virtual" passport too!

My daughter and sister in law made their reservations and paid in advance in very early 2007 for their 7-day cruise in September. Then a week before they were scheduled to go was when all those hurricanes were hitting parts of S. America. They were afraid it was going to be cancelled but they substituted several different ports for some that had gotten battered by the storms. They had a WONDERFUL time and are ready to go again.