This is what I submitted to my local US Representative:
Back story: My husband, Michael, who works for xxxxxxxx, had an opportunity to go to France in October of 2005. I was all set to go with him until I realized that Benjamin, our 1.5 year old son, didn’t have a passport. We did not go with him on that trip but I immediately applied for a passport for Ben in case this opportunity presented itself again. When we received the passport in December of 2005, I had noticed a little pucker in the lamination over the picture but I didn’t think anything of it. I put it in our safe and didn’t think about it again.
Present day: We are scheduled to go on a Disney cruise in xxxxxxxx. Mike pulled Ben’s passport from the safe and touched the pucker which promptly cracked. We do not feel safe traveling with that passport and have been advised by the National Passport Information Center not to do so. Fortunately, the overwhelming number of passport applications have caused border security with the Caribbean to remain relaxed enough that Ben will be able to travel with his birth certificate.
Upcoming dilemma: It’s looking like Mike will be getting another opportunity to travel to France xxxxxxxx and we might be able to join him. I contacted the NPIC on what to do about the cracked lamination. They told me that I’d have to apply for another passport and pay the full replacement amount. It does not seem fair to me that I have to pay to replace a passport that was defective from the time that it was given to me. A new minor passport will have an expiration date of 2012 which is two years past Ben’s current passport’s expiration date. I’m willing to compromise and pay 40% of the cost of a new passport because that’s how much a new passport will extend Ben’s passport (2 years of 5 years = 40% of total) although I’d prefer not to have to pay anything at all since the problem was that I received a defective passport in the first place. Since the passport is “damaged,” we have to include Ben’s birth certificate with the passport application. In order to get a new passport back in time to go to France, we have to put in the application almost immediately but we need the birth certificate to go on our cruise which means that we would need to purchase another birth certificate.
Resolution: I’d like Congressman Chabot to mediate this conflict between myself and the US State Department. If possible, I’d like to have Ben’s defective passport fixed with no further cost to myself. I’d like to have the “damaged” passport be enough proof of citizenship so that I don’t have to purchase another birth certificate.
Megan, the Staff Assistant in charge of passport issues understood where I was coming from and I’m hoping she’ll be able to persade her contact to rectify this.