Greek Passport

It's my turn to blog about bureaucratic circumstances in acquiring a necessary documents for traveling (well, actually I managed to avoid all headaches, but ONE). Though, firstly, I should say that I am very grateful to have dual citizenship!!! Ok, so here's the story:

Of all years, my Greek passport had to expire in March 2013, during which we would still be galavanting around the world! 

Ok, you ask....why couldn't you just have used your US passport?? And the answer to that is : I wanted to save some money and more headaches (on top of those Rakesh has been through). With a Greek passport, I would be able to travel without requiring any VISAs to the countries we plan to visit, except for a VISA upon entry to Cambodia!


Headaches I've been able to avoid: 

      #1: I would have had to obtain a Brazilian VISA, prior to traveling, for $160(!!!). Why this much? Well, it's only fair I guess, as this is a reciprocity fee. FYI, Rakesh only had to pay $20 for his!

      #2: I would have had to pay for a $131 at the airport upon arriving in Argentina (another reciprocity fee)!

      #3: Guess what?! Correct! Another reciprocity fee.  $140 to enter Chile!!

      Possible #4: One more reciprocity fee - $130 to enter Bolivia (which may be one of our destinations). 

So if my calculations are correct: I have saved us $431 or possibly $561 (if we end up in Bolivia)!!! Waaahhhoooo!

Notice, I have not even started to mention VISAs for countries in Southeast Asia (except for Cambodia), as my research for these countries has not been as extensive (i.e. regarding cost for US citizens) and now that I have my Greek passport renewed, I don't even need to bother.

Getting my Greek passport was not a piece of cake. I managed to keep fairly calm and my positive vibes helped, I'm sure. Though, admittedly about 2 months into the process, I was pretty much on tenter hooks and probably checked my phone for a voicemail, at least 10 times a day (ok, slight exaggeration), hoping to hear that my passport had arrived!! 

Here's the story. I'll try to be brief. 

I was happy to be on top of renewing my passport EARLY. I believe it was last April or May when I called the consulate to request an appointment in order to renew my passport. Well, disappointingly, I didn't get very far....The lady asked me: "when does your passport expire?" and I said: "March 2013". The response was: MMAAAARRRCH TWO THHOUUUSAAAND THIRTEEEEEN??!!!...I can't do anything about it now...don't call me back until November!" Yikes! I attempted to tell her that I needed my passport in order to leave for my travels in October, but she clearly didn't care and told me nothing could be done so far in advance. HHmmm! Here's my theory, she was inundated with too much work and didn't want to take on another job. I felt somewhat defeated, but not completely...

Luckily, I stuck to my guns, looked up the renewal process online again, and sure enough I read that one could renew their passport up to 12 months prior to the date of expiration of the current passport.  However, by the time I got the impetus to look into all this again, it was July! I called the lady again, and of course she didn't remember me...The story begins pretty much the same way as above...I anticipated her response the answer I gave her regarding the date of expiration. I was prepared with my armour!! I said "listen.." She did! I told her about my research on the internet, and I won! But then I couldn't believe the words that came out of her mouth..."it will take 2 to 2.5 months to get your passport"....aaahhh! I was practically shattered. I ran to the calender after I hung up and counted the days over and over again...I thought, there's no way...I MUST get my passport BEFORE we leave....

and I did (a week ago). The lady was right. It took 2.5 months for me to get my passport! 

Phew!!

Oh! Just to let you know what the process entailed..

1) Appointment with Consulate general to file application (luckily this was only 2 days after my phone call to the lady)

2) Application sent from SF Greek consulate to Athens Immigration Police department

3) then to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Athens

4) then to NYC Greek consulate (!)

5) and finally back to SF consulate

(and what is worse...is that the passport is sent with bulk mail only when Diplomatic documents are sent. Approx. every 3 weeks)...Hence, the required timeframe for the whole process 2.5 months!!!

I want to thank my brother-in-law, Alexandros, for making a few calls to inquire about the whereabouts of my passport. The information he relayed to me helped to calm my tense nerves, shortly before receiving my passport!