Jumpin' The Boarder

Is just what I may have to do if my passport gets denied again.

Yes, again. As in, it's been denied twice already and we're working on a third time now.

Some back story: I was born in Canada and moved to Missouri when I was about 9 months old. My dad had dreams of going back to Canada eventually so he never bothered to get me American citizenship. There was never any problem with this until last October when my grandma died suddenly. I told my mom I wanted to go with her back to Canada for the funeral no matter what we had to do. This meant that I had about a month to get my passport so that I was able to go back over the boarder. Long story short, my passport got denied but I was able to go over the boarder and back because I have a green card and I'm a permanent resident in the States.

Anyways, when Keegan and I decided to honeymoon in Canada, we figured it would be easier to apply for my passport again than to fight with boarder control and possibly not be let over. Well, we were wrong. We went to Walgreens to have my picture taken because they boast to be passport picture takers. We had to fight with explain to the photo lady that they can in fact do Canadian passport pictures, they just don't have to cut them out for us (Canadian passport pictures are rectangular, not square like American passport pictures.) After some discussion, we got what we thought would be an acceptable picture, put everything I needed into an envelope and sent it off to my mom so she could sign off on it (to get a Canadian passport, you have to have someone sign off saying that you pictures is a likeness of you and that you're aren't a bad person to their knowledge. This person also has to have a Canadian passport and know you for over 15 years or something like that. Kind of ridiculous if you ask me, but no one asked me.) Anyways, my mom didn't send off my application for about two months because my youngest sister, in one of her cleaning sprees, had lost my mom's passport.

Eventually my passport was sent off and we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, on Wednesday, we got a package on our doorstep that was a little too light and flat to contain a passport. We opened the envelope and saw that I was denied again. The reason? Apparently there was a shadow behind my head in the picture. A freakin' shadow. Arrrgggg

I called my dad and asked if it was even worth trying again (since you know, we're getting married in about a month and a half,) and he said if we got it off ASAP, there was a chance. Back to Walgreens we go, to get my picture taken for the third time. After arguing with the lady again, we get the picture and notice that what the officials could be mistaking as a shadow could possibly be my frizzy hair. No joke.

We're going to send it off and see what happens. Worse comes to worse, we have a few options:

1. We try and get over the boarder with my other documents and see if they'll let us pass. If not, we can either drive back to MO/MS or take a tour of Michigan (my least favorite option.) 

2. Just decide now that we're not going to Canada and figure out a different honeymoon. I want to go back to the Smokey Mountains, so that's always an option.

3. Not go on a honeymoon right away. We could save Keegan's vacation days for the holidays and go on a honeymoon early next year.

4. Take a tour around the Mid-West and see some of our friends. We have friend and family in Columbia, Springfield, Kansas City, St. Louis, Illinois and more. I'm sure we could fill up a week going from place to place and seeing people for a couple days. 

So now we wait again. Half of me hopes that I get the passport, half of me just doesn't want to deal with it anymore.



By the way, we were just able to apply for Keegan's passport on Monday. The lady at the post office said they're getting done in about 4 weeks, but I'm not holding my breath that he gets his in time as well.

Anyone else have to suddenly change their honeymoon plans? Anyone have any tips for getting around the government? (kidding....sorta.)