Getting A New Us Passport

[BAGirl2004]

Has anyone gotten a new US passport at the embassy? Mine is expiring but I want to keep my old one (I have Brazilian and Argentine reciprocity fees paid). Does anyone know if they make you give up your passport of if you can keep it? Is it better just to "lose" my passport or will that make my paid fees invalid?

Also, does anyone know how long it takes?

Any help would be great.

 

[BaltRochGirl]

They should return your old passport to you, with holes punched through the cover. The reciprocity fee will still be valid but the new passport has a new # so they will have to do a little bit more work to confirm it when you come into the country.

It takes a couple weeks, might be faster but when I did they said 14 days, arrived in 10, really depends on the current workload I would guess.

If you "lose" your passport it makes it hard to use for old visas, if they scan it for that reason it will come up stolen and could cause you problems.

 

[AmigoArtistico]

BaltRochGirl,

Did you renew your passport while living here?

If so, I have a few questions:

• Did you use your Argentine address on the new passport?
• Did you make an appointment at the consulate, or just do it by mail?
• Where did you have the new passport photos taken?
• If you used your Argentine address, how did you fit that into the fields of the form, which are designed for US addresses?
• Any other advice you can give on things I'm not thinking of.

I have to renew my passport shortly. Any and all advice is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[ElCordobés]

We just had our daughter's passport renewed TODAY. The US Embassy sent to representatives to Cordoba (they do twice per year). They punched the two holes through the first two pages. Brazilian visa and Argentine reciprocity are un-punched and it was returned to us immediately (They confirmed that we had no pending travel before punching it). They said we would have the new one via DHL (we prepaid) within 2-3 weeks. It was 914 pesos. A deal if you're working with blue as it's USD105 for a child passport officially. Slightly more for the adult renewal.

You need an appt for the Embassy. They have it online. http://argentina.use...assports.html�� All the info is there. You can email as well with any questions--they should respond within 24 hours.
We took the photo ourselves. They have tools on the State Dept website to check that your image file is the correct size. There are also smart phone apps for iOS and Android (Android has a nice free one).

We used our Argentine address as that's the return address. Everything fits. You can do the PDF fill in form...no need to hand write it.

We've done 5 passports abroad. US Embassy in BA, US Embassy in Montevideo and now the visit to Cordoba. I believe they visit other regions for those who are interested. You should register with the embassy so you receive an email alert.

By far the best option was this visit to Cordoba. We met at a nice hotel conference room for our 930am appt. We were done at 929am (yes, before our appt time). It was great. No hassles getting our whole family to BA for a child's passport. It took 10 minutes. Going to the embassy in our case took an hour to 90 minutes before we were called for our appt.

 

[AmigoArtistico]

We just had our daughter's passport renewed TODAY. The US Embassy sent to representatives to Cordoba (they do twice per year). They punched the two holes through the first two pages. Brazilian visa and Argentine reciprocity are un-punched and it was returned to us immediately (They confirmed that we had no pending travel before punching it). They said we would have the new one via DHL (we prepaid) within 2-3 weeks. It was 914 pesos. A deal if you're working with blue as it's USD105 for a child passport officially. Slightly more for the adult renewal.

You need an appt for the Embassy. They have it online. http://argentina.use...assports.html�� All the info is there. You can email as well with any questions--they should respond within 24 hours.
We took the photo ourselves. They have tools on the State Dept website to check that your image file is the correct size. There are also smart phone apps for iOS and Android (Android has a nice free one).

We used our Argentine address as that's the return address. Everything fits. You can do the PDF fill in form...no need to hand write it.

We've done 5 passports abroad. US Embassy in BA, US Embassy in Montevideo and now the visit to Cordoba. I believe they visit other regions for those who are interested. You should register with the embassy so you receive an email alert.

By far the best option was this visit to Cordoba. We met at a nice hotel conference room for our 930am appt. We were done at 929am (yes, before our appt time). It was great. No hassles getting our whole family to BA for a child's passport. It took 10 minutes. Going to the embassy in our case took an hour to 90 minutes before we were called for our appt.

Well, that's one question answered. You now need an appointment to renew your passport. A few years ago there was an option to do it through the mail. I also see on the US govt website that you can make your own passport photo (if you dare). It doesn't have any recommendations for where to have one taken.

 

[ElCordobés]

You need an appt to renew at an embassy. If you're in the US--you can renew via mail or at a US Passport Agency (with appt and expediting fee of $60).

 

[pitipur]

you can get your photos done at lots of places. Just google any place that does "foto carnet". I went to a photo shop last week on Santa Fe between Bonpland and Carranza and got 6 photos for 50p

 

[AmigoArtistico]

you can get your photos done at lots of places. Just google any place that does "foto carnet". I went to a photo shop last week on Santa Fe between Bonpland and Carranza and got 6 photos for 50p

And they're acceptable for US passports? I ask because 10 years ago the photo rules used to be really strict, but even looking on the US govt website, it seems that things have changed some.

 

[Johnny]

Seems all the appropriate info listed above, though a reminder after my experience a week ago. I scheduled an "appointment" per the new rules. The appointment for 9AM. I arrived at 8:30 and finally left after 12:30PM. I understand from others that that was unusual, but be forewarned that it can happen. Bring something to read !

 

[BaltRochGirl]

BaltRochGirl,

Did you renew your passport while living here?

If so, I have a few questions:

• Did you use your Argentine address on the new passport?
• Did you make an appointment at the consulate, or just do it by mail?
• Where did you have the new passport photos taken?
• If you used your Argentine address, how did you fit that into the fields of the form, which are designed for US addresses?
• Any other advice you can give on things I'm not thinking of.

I have to renew my passport shortly. Any and all advice is appreciated.

Thanks.

I don't recall what address I used as I requested to go pick it up at the Embassy rather than deal with the mail. They e-mailed me when it was ready and I just stopped by to pick it up.
You can make an appointment on the website as noted above.
Any shop that says Kodak can take the photo just make sure they have the background and size set properly, the US passport website lists the current requirements clearly, most shops have no issue but if they seem unsure try another.

Don't bring a lot of electronics to the embassy you can't bring in cameras/phones/laptops/tablets and the like so you have to leave them all with security while you're inside.