Sometimes they forget. Or they think it's in that back drawer filled with spiders and dust. Other times they didn't bother to check the expiration date.
Whatever the reason, whether desperate and annoyed or calm and well-organized, they all come to the same small room at one of the county's two main passport agencies to acquire that little blue booklet absolutely necessary for international travel.
"I just hadn't been thinking about my passport and it snuck up on me," said Shelley Ehler, a Camarillo resident who will travel with her boyfriend to Germany and Switzerland at the end of the month--if she gets her passport in time. "My mom started to stress me out saying, 'What are you thinking waiting so long.' "
Ehler, 28, was one of about 60 people who trickled, every eight minutes according to the appointment schedule, past the line for mail at the Oxnard post office, and into the back room that says "Passports" on the door. It didn't take her long to get her application stamped, sealed and sent by Maria Kays, the sales manager in Oxnard's passport office. But it will take a bit longer to actually receive the passport.
The U.S. State Department issues passports to American citizens wanting to travel abroad. Every year, close to 9,000 people get passports through the Simi Valley and Oxnard passport offices. After the application is processed in this county, it is sent to Pittsburgh, Pa., and then rerouted to another destination, often coming back to Los Angeles--before going out to applicants in the mail.
The official wait time for a passport is six weeks, but for a $35 fee, which Ehler paid, travelers can receive it in 10 days. If the trip falls within two weeks, a visit to the passport office in the Federal Building in West Los Angeles is recommended.
The Oxnard office switched from an all walk-in policy to appointments only about two months ago. Although she isn't supposed to, Kays often takes walk-ins, fitting them in when an appointment is late or doesn't show up. "I don't mind walk-ins," she said. "Things aren't always so cut and dried that you can make an appointment."
The Simi Valley office has been operating on an appointment-basis for about a year, but it went from being open two days a week to five just last month. A surge in customers forced both the Simi Valley and Oxnard offices to expand their schedules, officials said.
