Passport Mishap | Riley Stephens

There I was, two weeks before departure with no valid passport to my name. With some further research, I learned my only option was to make an appointment to get a same day passport from the New Orleans Passport Agency. I immediately made an appointment for 8:30 AM on May 29th, 13 days before departure. As I arrived at the passport agency, I was forced by security to turn my phone completely off before entering, which would have been no trouble at all had I not planned on using it to finish the rough draft of my research paper that was due that day at noon.

After realizing I would have to go through this process as quickly as possible to turn my rough draft in to Mrs. Paige on time, I ended up standing in line for 45 minutes. However, this was not the line in which you received help at the end. This was the line where you acquired a number to see how long you would wait again before you are actually helped. Once I reached the counter of the first line, expecting to receive my well-deserved number, I was told I must go down to the third floor and get a passport picture taken, as I did not already have one. I then preceded to the third floor to have my picture taken by a woman appearing to be in her late 70s, using what looked like an oversized polaroid camera. The picture took about 5 minutes to print, followed by another 20 minutes of ink drying. Once the woman handed me my picture, I was back on my way to the passport agency on the 13th floor of the building. This is when I learned that having already waited in the line to get a number did not matter, as I was forced to wait again for another 30 minutes. Upon finally receiving my number, roughly two hours after my arrival, I sat in the waiting area for another hour for my number to actually be called. As the woman at the service desk finished helping me she said, “Thank you for coming today! Your passport will be delivered to your house in 5-7 business days.” Thus, after four hours of waiting to get my same day passport, I finally left the DMV-style passport agency of New Orleans empty handed.

Five days later my passport arrived in the mail just as promised. The second I opened the package, I placed the new passport with everything else I had packed for the trip. On June 10, the day of departure, I threw my passport into my bag as I was completing my last-minute packing. It was not until I was prompted to enter my passport number while checking into my flight on the way to the airport, that I realized I had somehow grabbed my expired passport. Because I was early for my flight and I thought I knew exactly where it was, I had not begun to panic just yet. However, after spending an hour and a half frantically searching for my new passport, I accepted the fact that I would not be attending the E3 study abroad program. Out of nowhere, I suddenly remembered it was left on the scanner after a copy was made of it. The Condor flight crew from Hamburg had my back that day by arriving late, resulting in a two-hour flight delay. Had the flight crew been on time, I may not have had the chance to write this from inside a Germany university. Thanks Condor.