They’re not gonna let us fly to England for Christmas if Emily doesn’t have a passport… so off to the American Consulate we went!
Before going, we had to fill out the 57 obligatory forms and acquire the 163 necessary documents including marriage license, birth certificates, hospital records, social security information, college transcripts, library card, fifth grade dream journal, and other assorted Mad Libs. Oh yeah, don’t forget the two recent color photos:
How does one take a usable photo of a newborn in which they are looking straight ahead with a “natural expression”, eyes open, mouth closed, with no one else in the photo, avoiding shadows on the face and background, taken in normal street attire, and in front of a plain white or off-white background? You can’t. She can’t even support her own head! We just lied Emily down on a white sheet and took the picture from above. At least we got the “Sweetheart” in the photo.
This passport will be valid for five years. Five years. That’s just ridiculous. Emily will look completely different in five months, much less five years. But I guess it’s better than shelling out $147 every year for a new passport.
Emily was very well behaved at the consulate. She was asleep upon arrival but caused quite a stir amongst the smattering of Americans in the waiting room with us when she finally woke up. Now that’s she’s smiling and cooing, no one is safe. She’ll melt your heart and have her wicked way with you. I wish I had brought a camera with me. The photo of the day would have been Jan breast feeding Emily on a large brown leather sofa beneath a menacing photo of Dick Cheney.
And a real sweetheart she is- more pictures please. Emily’s fans are anxiously waiting the latest and the greatest.
Nana Adrian
since the photo will be outdated shortly, you could use that passport to sneak any number fo babies out of spain. awesome!
I have to do the same thing for Ian, sooner rather than later. The one thing that prevented me from doing it when he was born was that I didn’t have ‘proof that I lived in the US for more than 5 (?) years after the age of 18 …’. Most people use college transcripts as proof. What did you use? Did you just happen to have college transcripts lying around?
Anyway, Emily seems to be in full ‘Winston Churchill’ phase. All is going according to plan.
Bob
Yeah, that whole ‘proof that I lived in the US for more than 6 years after the age of 14’ is a real pain in the ass. They actually let me file the application without it if I promised to get it to them “soon”. I just went to the registrar’s page of my college website and ordered some transcripts. That only covered 4 years so I’m still missing a couple. I’m gonna try and contact my high school tomorrow. Jan thought your Churchill comment was mildly amusing. Emily is currently planning strategic invasions with her stuffed doggies. Look out Mr. Whiskers!
So this means Emily has a Spanish passport, correct? And her parents both have passports from 2 other countries? Hmm – good luck at the border crossing! (Be sure not to tell them you are there to act in any theatre festivals as you had so much trouble last time…)
@Meg – No and no. Emily is currently applying for two passports: a British and an American. Jan and I have one passport each (the ones we arrived in Spain with). We have received incredibly different information from different sources regarding Emily’s eligibility for a Spanish passport. Some say she’ll have to wait one year, others say three years, others say seven years, while others say ten years. Whatever. You’re right about the border crossing, though. Always tell ’em you’re on holiday!
I knew I shouldn’t have clicked on that Dick Cheney link after like 40,000 nonstop hours of working and now it’s 3.20 a.m. and I have to get up and work soon and now I can’t sleep because… well, I knew I shouldn’t have clicked on that Dick Cheney link. Talk about a spooky Halloween!!!!