I’m one of those people who procrastinates. And when I find myself distracted, it’s usually because of social media. One task that I had in the back of my mind was getting a passport for the little guy. I was one of those parents who proudly said, “I’m going to get him a passport the day we get home from the hospital”. Nope, never happened.
Yesterday, as I was browsing my twitter feed, I responded to a tweet. Even though I already knew the process of applying for passports, I wanted to see if things had possibly changed from 7 years ago when I renewed mine.
Within minutes, I had an answer, and the magical word was “online“. Somehow seeing the convenient option to now apply for a passport online instantly got my butt in gear. It took a whole 6 minutes for me to complete the application, print it, and see a breakdown of the fee.
The next part is getting the 2×2 photo and going as a family to process the application. Of course, I wanted to be extra prepared for whatever travels come our way, so I naturally opted for the 52 page book… ;)
It’s so funny that a simple tweet motivated me to get moving. Has something like this happened to you before? Ever got sometime done because of a little bit of social media motivation?
Reminder: Once you get the baby’s passport, you can apply for Global Entry which IS required regardless of age, even if parent has GE.
TSA PreCheck is different. Ages 12+ may accompany a family member if that person has PreCheck BP access.
CORRECTION: Ages 12 or younger!
Don’t forget that both parents have to go down to the passport acceptance facility when applying for child’s passports. We found we really beat the line at our local post office by making the first appointment of the morning. Line was really bad by the time we left, but we were in and out in 5-10 minutes because of our strategy.
I came across this post via the BA home page, so didn’t technically find it via social media, but it has inspired me to get my butt in gear as well and renew our passports. Thanks!
It was a fairly simple process for us too. We took the picture of our son ourselves. **Tip** What we did was use one of those nursing pillows and put a white sheet over it for the background. Then put your little guy on it and take the photo from above. It keeps him in place and makes it really easy for the photo. Use the photo editor that the passport website has and it will make it a perfect 2×2 photo. Print it and you’re good to go!
Of course… I am just waiting for someone to deny us with his passport because he was only 3 months when we got his and he looks completely different now at 1 1/2 years old.