My old passport expires this year. I remember when I got it, back in 1999, it was the summer I graduated high school and mom took me on a trip as a graduation present to see the solar eclipse.I remember thinking, wow 2009, I'll be 27 - so OLD! I couldn't even picture my future 10 years from then.. little did I know I'd be living here in Normandy and sending in my stamp filled passport to get renewed in Paris.
This is not the first time my passport has traveled by chronopost, a few years ago I had to add more pages, ran out of room! Back in the day the carte de sejours were like visas and glued in your passport - you run out of room fast that way!
But now my ghetto old school passport (with the picture actually glued in and then laminated over, no digital back in the day!) is going back to Paris today and I will get a new biometric one in it's place. It was quite a mission though, trying to get this renewal underway!
American passport pictures are not the same size and specifications as French ones, so I had to hunt out a photographer that could take my American picture, found one yesterday in Caen.
So 2 terrible passport pictures later, (no joke, they're terrible!!! no smiling the guy told me!) :
15 euros
42 euros for 2 chronopost envelopes (yup the US Embassy makes you pay postage to send it back, grrr...)
55 euros (approx from $75) renewal fee.
Thank god that will be over with for the next 10 years! I can't wait to get my hands on that puppy, and I'm really glad their sending the old one back, so many memories!
5 commentaires:
I got mine renewed last year too- had the same problem with the photos. What do you mean that yours is biometric? Did you have to send in fingerprints or something?
Thanks for reminding me of our 1999 Mom & Daughter Trip to France, Belgium and Denmark - fun!
Speaking of passport photos, of course your wouldn't remember your very first one...you were only 6 weeks old. We were living in Switzerland and I sat you on my lap in one of those photo booths. The kind that cost just a few Swiss Francs and gave you 4 photos in a row.
You leaned forward (photo 1), saw yourself in the mirror (photo 2) and POP! the flash went off (photo 3) and you slammed back against me (photo 4).
So, we had 4 photos of you that were hysterical. I laughed so hard! And then went to the photographer and got your real passport photo. That one worked - and still have it.
love,
Mom
@megan I don't know, it just mentioned biometric on one of the Paris Embassy sites I was looking at. I didn't have to give them any finger prints though.
@mom you should scan those pictures in! do you have the original strip of 4? or the passport one would be fun too :-)
I'm sure I have the original strip of 4 ...uh, somewhere in a box in the basement. When you come home this summer we should pull the boxes out and go through them.
I do have your first 2 passports (6 weeks and 5 years) in my office drawer...with all of the country stamps (before EU and open borders). You even went to East Germany before the wall came down. You should have those for your collection of passports!
Boy.. I got mine renewed last year too! I couldn't believe how easy peasy lemon squeezy it was. I was expecting some bureaucratic nightmare.. I forgot that I was dealing with America and not France!
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