After filling out all the paperwork to renew my and my husband’s passport and get Jack his very first one, the next step was to get passport photos. Since the photos have to be so specific or your passport application will be rejected, we decided to go to a professional. We all went together on my husband’s lunch break to the nearest business offering passport photos, which happened to be Kinkos. Now, I have had many good experiences at Kinkos and I don’t want to sully their name with this post, but wow. That was one of the worst customer service experiences I’ve ever had.
After waiting 15 minutes for this young girl to take someone else’s photo, she wanders off for awhile. She finally comes back, takes three terrible pictures of me and lets me choose between them. Then, we get Jack up on the chair and ready for his photo. Meanwhile, I guess she decided it was a good time for a break and bought herself a candy bar at the counter RIGHT IN FRONT OF US, then wandered off to eat it. We were like . . . hello?
She finally wanders back and luckily Jack is in a good mood, surprisingly after all that waiting. He is smiling like crazy and standing pretty still. Somehow, she managed to only snap a picture in the few moments he wasn’t smiling. It took another half hour or so to get my husband’s done, pay them $40 and get out of there. We were there for about an hour overall for three passport photos.
We were planning to go to the post office that day too, but ran out of time. Of course, later that day, I was looking to make sure our post office accepted passport applications (some don’t) and saw that you can get your photos done there for $15 each. I would have been well worth the extra $5 to get everything done at once.
Ready for his closeup

Did you know even newborn babies need a passport in order to leave the country? I highly recommend getting a passport for your children, even if you don’t have a trip planned. That way if you ever decide to leave the country, you don’t have to worry about the four to six weeks it takes to get it.

It used to be that you only needed a passport if you were traveling outside of North America, but since 9/11, the rules have become much more strict. Now you’ll need a passport for Mexico and Canada as well. They do make a passport card (as opposed to the standard passport book) you can use to enter Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and Bermuda. It is a little cheaper ($35 rather than $85), but in my opinion, if you are going to go to all the trouble of filling out the paperwork, getting photos done and submitting an application, why not just go for the passport book and have all of the options available to you?

Here are the steps involved in getting a passport for a minor (under 16):

1. Fill out this form with your child’s standard information (birthday, place of birth, etc.).

2. Get proof of your child’s citizenship. This can be your child’s original birth certificate (not a copy) or one of the following: naturalization certificate, consular report of birth abroad or certification of birth, or certificate of citizenship.

3. Get proof that you are the child’s legal guardians. They accept a birth certificate, report of birth abroad, adoption decree or court order establishing custody or guardianship.

4. Get proof that you are you. Get a photocopy of the front and back of the ID you plan to bring with you when appying. Acceptable IDs include a driver’s license, U.S. passport, naturalization certificate, current government employee ID (city, state or federal) and current military ID (military and dependents).

5. You must apply in person. Find a passport acceptance facility near you (usually a post office) and call or check their website to see if they do passport photos there and whether or not you need to make an appointment.

6. If they don’t do passport photos, you can get them done at Target, Walmart, Walgreens, Kinkos and other similar places.

7. Bring the application form, proof of citizenship, IDs and photocopies, passport photos (if you’re not getting them done there) and $85 to the post office or other facility. Important: both parents must be present (and have identification) for this. If this is not possible for one reason or another, there are steps you can take, which are outlined here (see step #6).

Phew! It’s actually not so bad. Then, in a month or so, you’ll have the freedom to take your child anywhere you want to go. The paperwork was easy, then it’s just a matter of gathering the rest of the stuff together. The man who helped us at the post office was very nice. The toughest part for us was getting the passport photos! It’s kind of a funny story actually.

My husband and I were renewing our passports while getting our son Jack’s, so we all went together on my husband’s lunch break to the nearest business offering passport photos, which happened to be Kinkos. I have had good experiences at Kinkos in the past, but wow. That was one of the worst customer service experiences I’ve ever had.

After waiting 15 minutes for this young girl to take someone else’s photo, she wanders off for five minutes or so. She finally comes back, takes three terrible pictures of me and lets me choose between them. Then, we get Jack up on the chair and ready for his photo. Meanwhile, I guess she decided it was a good time for a break and bought herself a candy bar at the counter RIGHT IN FRONT OF US, then wandered off to eat it. We were like . . . hello?

She finally comes back and luckily Jack is in a good mood, surprisingly after all that waiting. He is smiling like crazy and standing pretty still. Somehow, she managed to only snap a picture in the few moments he wasn’t smiling. It took another half hour or so to get my husband’s done, pay them $40 and get out of there. We were there for over an hour overall for three passport photos.

Hopefully the process will go smoothly for you, but even if you do hit a snag or two, I truly think it’s worth it just to have the freedom to come and go as you please. Take you child out to see the world every chance you get! There’s no better education than that.