Our "Nice to Know"  section of the Coqui Courier contains useful information on a range of subjects useful to our members.  Here is October's "Nice to Know"......

Obtaining a US Passport in Puerto Rico

Article by: Izara Mosby

Well, it’s me again, this time with our experience in applying for an American Passport for our Puerto Rican little boy.

Having had two many glasses of Vino the night before, my Husband and I woke early at 6am on a nice Puerto Rican Saturday morning for a trip down to Ponce to apply for a passport for our son Kai, who was born here  2 months earlier. We chose Ponce as opposed to San Juan due to a recommendation from a Puerto Rican colleague who had recently made the trip herself and advised how efficient the process was. Also, with Ponce, you don’t need to make an appointment, just show up, and being open on Saturday was a definite bonus.

The trip from San Juan to Ponce took a little over an hour, and as we headed South past Caguas, we watched the morning landscape rise to the beautiful lush green hills and then into a near barren landscape on the South of the Island. Ponce itself greeted us with a very dubious and dodgy looking sign saying “Ponce” which sat over the top of the highway; the person who agreed to that sign could have won the “state the obvious” award just as easily as the “how not to label a city” award….pretty dreadful sign!!!

So, having arrived in Ponce, and easily finding our way to the small shopping mall where the passport office was situated, we walked in 30 minutes ahead of opening time…..not bad going, according to my husband. Already there were 20 people or so ahead of us, and the usual PR ‘first come first served’ list was handed to us by a kind guy who realized we were clearly ducks out of water. We stuck our names down and wondered around the rest of the mall (all 20 shops) wasting time until opening time.

At 8.30 prompt, the official came out of the office and handed out nice glossy application forms, identical to the ones we had previously printed from the internet. He explained in Spanish that the forms MUST be completed in English, much to the skepticism of one or two old ladies who had clearly never left Ponce before, never mind Puerto Rico. But with some guidance, people filled in the forms and started to enter the office for the actual application process itself.

By 9am, we were inside, had handed over all the forms, photos and fees (see below) and the guy in the cubicle started making copies of all the relevant paperwork. Unfortunately, when it came to the photos, he called a halt, explaining (quite justifiably) that even though the photo had been taken at an ‘approved’ passport photography studio, it wasn’t suitable. The problem was that to take Kai’s photo, they had to sit him in a special chair, and although it was a white chair on a white background, it didn’t comply with the US Passport photo requirements of a single clear background. Panic momentarily hit in, but fortunately, to the guys behind the counter, this was quite a regular occurrence.

He told us not to worry and to drive just down the road to Sears where they had a photo studio, and re-take the photos. In the meantime, he assured us that he had everything else he needed and told us just to come straight back to him with the corrected photo and he’d finalize the application. 30 minutes later with new photos in hand, we returned to the passport office, handed over the photo, and we were told that the Passport would be fedex’d to us within 14 days (we chose the expedited version, having paid an extra $60). We were on our way back to San Juan by 10am, not bad going in my opinion.

Kai’s shiny new passport arrived the following week (sooner than expected) and we were now set for overseas travel.

Here are some specific details to help you with your passport application:

Contact details

Oficina De Servicios

Area Sur 4900

Calle Condado Hoyas 153

Ponce

Puerto Rico 00717-1324

Telephone: 787-843-6494

Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday 8.30am – 3pm

The website for the most up to date passport information can be found on www.travel.state.gov/passport.com.