Passport woes

I was in Israel for 3 weeks, and one of the main goals of the trip was obtaining new visas for us. This isn’t as easy one might think, because first we needed official invitations, which take a month to process.

It turned out that the visa wasn’t the big problem. The passport was.

Mendel has now been issued his 5^th passport. He is not yet three. I lost passport #1 in Moscow airport, and passport #2, issued in Moscow, as only valid for a year. So we reapplied for a new one in Connecticut, only passport #3 came back with the birth date written wrong. The jury is still out on if it was my mistake or the passport agency’s, out we only discovered the mistake 2 days before our scheduled return to Russia. So we flew with the passport, and all would have been fine if we weren’t applying for permanent residency. The immigration office has a whole bunch of women whose job is to find mistakes in applications. So they of course discovered that there was a discrepancy between Mendel’s birth certificate and his passport. The consulate in Vladivostok was super nice, and the helped us get passport #4 – with the corrected birthday. But then it was, unfortunately, stolen. So while in Israel, before getting a new visa for Mendel needed to correct his passport. I really wasn’t sure how to do that so I contacted the US Embassy.

Now, there are two offices for US services while in Israel. The embassy is located in Tel Aviv, and there is a consulate in East Jerusalem. Notice it is in EAST Jerusalem. The website asks that all US citizens residing in Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West bank use the East Jerusalem consulate. That should give you a good idea about the people that go, and, more importantly, work, there.

I sent both the consulate and the embassy an email asking what to do. After exchanging a few emails, the consulate in Jerusalem sent me this email:

Thank you for the additional information you sent. We have gone into the passport system to investigate further. Here is what we have discovered:

Your son, born in 2006, has already had three passports. He was issued one shortly after the birth. This one was stolen in July of this year in Moscow and a temporary replacement was issued there. When you finished your travel, you applied for a full validity replacement, which was issued in August. So far, so clear. But then the story gets murky. (they make me sound like a criminal out of a spy novel) First of all, the birthdate mistake was yours, not the State Department’s. . . BUT…the record also shows that a correction of data was filed in October. So as far as we can see, this matter has already been resolved, and we don’t understand this email request for an emergency passport.

Can you please clarify what is going on? (a long explanation followed, in which they explained why I was at fault and why most likely they would not be able to help me)

We look forward to hearing from you again with your clarification.

Sincerely,

Jerusalem American Consulate Services

At that point I lost patience. I got it touch with Tel Aviv, and just 2 trips to Tel Aviv later, plus an afternoon spent on the beach, I had Mendel’s new, revised passport in my hand.

Thank G-d.

Valid for 1 full year. That sounds like a lot to me at this point.