State Department cashed my passport renewal checks - approved?

[chik1987]

I have no experience about the picture thing but I applied for a received my kids passports earlier this year (we had to do it wayyy in advance because we had to fill out the absent parent form, send in custody documents ect because my ex is not around anymore) and we had the passports in hand before I received the email or it was updated on their website so you may get a surprise in the mail one day.

 

[shoes99]

I mailed my renewal application on 11/18, it was delivered on 11/20 and my check was cashed on 11/21 at the Philadelphia location.
Hope that also means they are processing the renewals. You can also go online and check the status,
When I checked mine, it said "processing".

Received our new passports today 12/3 via USPS Priority Mail. We did not get our old passports back. Whole process only took 15 days. We are pleased.

 

[houseofduck]

Received our new passports today 12/3 via USPS Priority Mail. We did not get our old passports back. Whole process only took 15 days. We are pleased.

Our old passports came separately from our new ones.

 

[houseofduck]

Thanks. Yes, I already checked and they are "in processing".

I am in no rush, really. More just curious because I did the passport photos myself. The guy at the post office gave me a spiel five years ago about how our photos were "iffy" and he was not sure they would be accepted (they were). Five years later, the same guy gave me almost the same exact spiel last Monday on the kids' renewal photos.

I am wondering if he gives the same speech to everyone who does not have the photos done at the post office.

I took all of our photos for our most recent round of passports. I used the State Dept. passport photo tool to make sure that the faces were the right size. I'm not a great photographer, but my photos passed. If anyone is interested, the tool is available at https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/general/photos.html

 

[squirk]

I took all of our photos for our most recent round of passports. I used the State Dept. passport photo tool to make sure that the faces were the right size. I'm not a great photographer, but my photos passed. If anyone is interested, the tool is available at https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/general/photos.html

Yes, I used the same tool. Very easy to use. The guy at the post office nonetheless gave me the spiel about how he did not know if they would be accepted. I guess he must say that to everyone who doesn't have the photos taken right there.

 

[squirk]

UPDATE - HA! My passport photo-taking batting average remains as 1.000! Just checked the Dept. of State web site and all three passports are en route.

Overpriced post-office photos can suck it!

 

[houseofduck]

UPDATE - HA! My passport photo-taking batting average remains as 1.000! Just checked the Dept. of State web site and all three passports are en route.

Overpriced post-office photos can suck it!

My daughter's first passport photo (taken at a passport office) was awful. She was one at the time. Her eyes were closed and I didn't think it would be acceptable. It probably wouldn't be accepted today.

 

[squirk]

The passports arrived today. The irony? All three photos in the passport books are super-washed out, far worse than the originals I printed, and probably would have been rejected had I sent them in like this. SMH.

 

[soniam]

We had our passport photos at the end of September and noticed that one of my eyes wasn't opening properly. That started a saga that just today resulted in a "No cancer!" result (Hallelujah!).

The reason I mention it is because by the time we got the applications turned in during the second week of November, the rules had changed and photos are now NOT supposed to include glasses. They didn't mention my daughter's glasses, but they didn't think my photo would be accepted. I wrote a note explaining the situation, that since the photo had been taken my eye had swollen completely closed and the photo is a much more accurate representation of me than what I could provide now.

They may have been more flexible with the rule since it was new, but it worked. I received my new passport within 2 weeks. My daughter's came a week later.

Best of passport luck to all!!

Glad to hear that you don't have cancer Hope your eye gets better soon.

I just have to say that the no glasses rule seems really weird. I tend to squint in regular pictures with my glasses on. I can't imagine how bad the squinting will be without my glasses I really can't see squat without them. I hope when I renew they just take my old picture. I can't remember if I have to get a new one when I renew.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

I just have to say that the no glasses rule seems really weird. I tend to squint in regular pictures with my glasses on. I can't imagine how bad the squinting will be without my glasses I really can't see squat without them.

I was told that the "no glasses" rule has to due with the facial recognition software they use. Glasses, especially if you get different ones, can mess up the software. As for squinting, you don't have to see anything during the picture, just relax and look straight ahead.

When I returned from oversees on an airplane last year, they had us go to a computer terminal first. Scan our passports and get our photo taken (without glasses). Then the computer printed out a form with or without an "X" on it. If you didn't have an X, the computer was pretty sure you were the same person as on the passport, and you went to a line where a person still talked to you, but was pretty sure you were the person on the passport. If you got the X, you went to a separate line, which took longer, to convince a person that you were the person on the passport photo. So having the computer be able to recognize you saves you some time. None of this will happen when you come back on a cruise ship. Just one set of lines, and no computers.

 

[soniam]

I was told that the "no glasses" rule has to due with the facial recognition software they use. Glasses, especially if you get different ones, can mess up the software. As for squinting, you don't have to see anything during the picture, just relax and look straight ahead.

Well, tell my brain that it's not important to see anything. They usually say look here when you get a picture. I would have to squint to see what "here" was. Oh well, they'll get what they get when I have to renew. Trying to see is sort of involuntary, especially if you have really bad eyesight. I have been through this before with driver's license pictures. It takes them several tries before they give up and take a squinty picture. Squinty is probably more realistic for how I look after overseas travel anyway I have Global Entry anyway for getting back into the country.