OK, so sending her passport to be renewed by mail in mid-December — despite having a year’s cushion — might not have been the most prudent approach for mom to take as our visa applications (with passports) were due on December 29th. But all seems to be well thanks to her efficient redirecting of passport from ordinary channels through expedited channels. Her passport came in on Thursday, shipped to me by Friday, and I drove both hers and mine over to Wonderful Travel, a China travel agency working with my adoption agency that also handles visa application courier activities.
New laws require that sending passports in by mail is no longer acceptable and we must show up in person at the New York Consulate or, in mom’s case, the Chinese Embassy in DC to deliver the passports, visa applications and fees, and then return 5 days later to pick them up. For an additional $160 over the $100 consulate fee, Wonderful Travel is able to take care of that back and forth AND guarantee the visas will be ready in time for travel. They are making the travel plans for our group of 20 families, so if anyone knows our travel plans first, it will be the folks holding our passports and visa. So, more expensive than Assistant Stork and other couriers, but I was running so late, thought I’d take the safest route.
The only scary part in all of this was when Jun changed my expected arrival in Beijing date from 1/26 (my guess) to 1/16! But expect I’ll know more on Tuesday at the travel meeting.
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If you’ve found out when we’ll be traveling, I’d appreciate any heads up prior to tomorrow’s meeting. We are trying to use miles and the more notice we have the better…..Thanks, Thom