In this edition of Notes to Notes, reader Sabrina shares one of her Foreign Foibles (or a Travel Tip, however you look at it). You may remember Sabrina from her whirring tour of Iceland. Here, she relates how she very nearly missed that trip altogether!
“Everything was going wonderfully as I prepared for my trip across Iceland . . . or so I thought. I’d procrastinated packing until the night before the trip, and hadn’t thought to check my passport, since I had used it two years earlier for a trip to London and thought it would still be valid.
“But as my parents and I were getting ready that night, I noticed something that almost didn’t seem possible: my passport had expired three days before I was due to leave the country!
“I had actually gotten the passport five years ago, when my parents took a trip to Madeira, Portugal. They had contemplated taking me with them. Since I was a minor at the time, my passport was only good for five years. Which, all in all, made for a horrible mess right now.
“Most of that night was spent in a nightmare of calling up embassies and printing out forms in a desperate attempt to get a new passport as soon as possible. It still wasn’t certain how soon I would get my passport, or if I’d even be able to go on the trip at all!
“Needless to say, I didn’t make the flight the next morning.”
Fortunately, an expedited application sent to Chicago meant Sabrina could make the trip after all, albeit a few days later than planned. Her parents, already in Iceland by then for a conference, met her on arrival.
Sabrina says: “The moral of the story? Make sure everything is in order—and valid—before leaving on a trip, even if you’re certain nothing could possibly go wrong. It would have been awful to miss the entire vacation by overlooking one small detail.”
A very memorable lesson, for sure. And Sabrina’s right—always check your passport and/or visa(s) when you’re planning a trip, especially during these crazy times when travel policies change every other week. I once had to miss out on a much-anticipated, much-needed trip to Toronto because of a suddenly-instituted requirement for a Canadian visa. Imagine my frustration, and the expense!
Whether you’re renewing your passport or need a visa for the particular country you’re visiting, make sure you take into account the processing time required. This includes time spent filling out the application, taking any necessary headshots, purchasing money orders for application fees, mailing everything to the offices or embassies involved, and pacing the floor while waiting for them to approve and return the materials to you.
Then add a few extra weeks to this time-frame. Play it safe: there’s always room for human error on their part (oh, how paperwork loves to get lost. Believe me, I know).
Remember: as your departure date gets closer, it’s better to have other things on your mind than fretting over a still-pending application!
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