I had the “pleasure” of visiting the US Embassy in Frankfurt this morning. Lucky for us it’s only about 20 minutes drive when there’s no traffic but since I had to be there at 7:15am, it was an unusually early up-and-out-of-the-house morning for me. As if fate would have it that way, Stefan’s parents were here this weekend which is when I realized it was time to renew my passport…so they were able to stay with Mackenzie this morning. Which meant she get to sleep in as usual and was just coming downstairs when I arrived back home at 8:20 am.
Some of the rules have changed at the embassy since the last time I was there in 2008/early 2009. You still cannot bring any electronic devices of any kind into the building which means no phones, iPods, handheld video games, etc… and not even tiny little flashlights on your key chain which I often forget about. I made sure to check my jacket last night for things that I forget are in there like pepper spray (which is definitely not allowed). But if you’re going there, also remember that they also will make you empty your coat pockets of everything inside…so your best bet is just to take only what you absolutely must have inside with you. Leave everything else in your car or at home.
The last time I was at the embassy you could actually leave things which were not allowed inside the building in cubbies inside the security building…but apparently that became too much of a risk and so you either have to return to your car now to stash it…or take it down the street to a kiosk where they will also apparently hold on to it for you (and I’m sure there’s a fee attached to this service.) So if you want to save yourself time, hassle and headache, just make sure you have nothing besides what you absolutely need when you journey to the embassy.
There also seem to be changes taking place with the sign in system and although you still need an appointment to get in the door (seriously, do not even think about going without one — it only takes a few seconds to register for them online), your appointment slip is otherwise not checked at all…but I still suggest you always take the printout with you as they recommend online.
Security outside and inside were in a surprisingly good mood today. Some of them I actually recognized from last time and they were pretty relaxed and actually joked with me. But inside the embassy it’s as if the Death Eaters are in the building and no smiling, laughing, joking or amusement of any kind are permitted. I can understand a certain level of professionalism and seriousness…I mean we’re talking about very official documents and permits here. And I also imagine that many of the people they deal with have incomplete documentation, may be trying to bend the rules or just downright don’t get it. And I can understand if you’ve seen 30 people already during the day and each proved to be more useless than the next. But since I know that there were only 5 people in line before me and we were the first people inside the embassy this morning, after waiting 30 minutes in the cold until the clerk arrived, there is no way she could have seen more than 2 people before me and the likelihood that they’d already killed her day just seems slim.
It’s unfortunately the same attitude the employees have every time I’m in there and it only seems to get worse. I know these people are not paid poorly and they have reasonable hours…so I just really don’t get it. Is there some sort of course that government employees in all countries take to make any sort of interaction with them painful? I know they’re not any better here in local government offices so I just have to wonder how they all know just how to agitate people the most. Especially when they’re in a great mood already thanks to the security guard outside who keeps asking people if they have an iPod on them…because he really could use a new one.
What have your experiences been like with government employees lately? Are they getting progressively more vile or is it just me?
Were you unable to renew by mail? I’ve done that twice here and it went well both times, and a lot handier now that they don’t issue passports in Hamburg anymore.
Of course you can’t renew children’s passports by mail, but we found the one-woman consular office in Bremen to be friendly and efficient. We ended up having to go twice because the rules on the website were not current, but that wasn’t her fault! 🙂
Well since my passport is actually expired already and the consulate is so close to us, I wanted to get the processing started as quickly as possible. Next time I will hopefully not be such a space cadet and get my passport renewed BEFORE it expires. Apparently I still have pregnancy brain or something…because even though I knew it was coming up at the beginning of the year, I completely spaced until the time came. Maybe I was just delaying having to get all the biometric junk in my passport 🙂
Interesting, the last time I was at the FFM Amieland embassy they were pretty friendly. But I was applying for marriage permit stuff, which seemed to make all the government employees that I had to deal with more manageable. Maybe that’s the only paperwork batch the bosses let them submit without swimming through the snake pit they have in back. What else could explain their wrath? And why does this wrath excede all cultural barriers/apply in every government office across the world? I found the security to get in that place is pretty intense as well. But I talked to the guys down at that kiosk, and they offered to hold my phone for no charge. Luckily I didn’t have it with me.
When we went to get Mackenzie’s US passport and file her birth notice, they were even worse. The guy “helping” us acted like we were trying to pull a fast one on us and got kinda crazy with us because we didn’t have what he considered to be sufficient paperwork for prove US nationalism — even though we had what was said was required on their website. I mean the process always goes quickly and I certainly can’t complain about that, but they just don’t act like they want to help you in any way. And that they’d rather be any where else in the world. There’s just a whole lot less hoop jumping required when you go to any of the German offices. But then again, when I got my passport in America the first time, at the local post office, the process also couldn’t have been more easy. Perhaps it’s just an embassy thing.
That’s interesting about the kiosk. I unfortunately would be very weary about them holding anything because you just don’t know if it will be there when you get back, especially if you’re not paying them. But if they ARE trustworthy, that is a heck of a nice thing for them to do!
Hahahaha!! Oh my…memories. Only our expeience was in a southern Africa country. It’s true – they all seem to hate their jobs!