Remember...
apply early for your passport. Seriously.But having a license that’s less than four months old is the same as having no photo ID at all. It sends up a red flag, triggering a blunt letter from the State Department: “Before further consideration can be given to your request for passport services, you will need to submit additional documentation to further establish your identity.” Just like that, about 20 days before my scheduled trip to London, my expedited passport application was about as unexpedited as you can get, and my plans were in jeopardy.
Attached to that letter was a list, and I was on a mission. I photocopied W-2 statements, certificates of title, insurance bills, credit cards, and even my high school yearbook. By the time I was done, I felt fairly sure I’d proven I was who I said I was. There was nothing left to do but Express Mail the envelope to the passport agency and hope the application would be approved.
Ten days later, another envelope has arrived from the State Dept.—my status as a U.S. citizen is no longer in doubt, and neither are my holiday plans. I could have spared myself a lot of stress if I had just started the process sooner, but in the end it was just another successful exercise in procrastination.
