2015-01-30
Icelandic beaurocracy + UK Royal Mail = Awesome
I have a new passport!
Getting it was only a little bit dramatic.
A couple of weeks ago, I visited the Icelandic Embassy in London, to take care of some paperwork related to the upcoming wedding. That was all well and good, the national registry sent the documents over very quickly via e-mail and the embassy staff were happy to print everything off and stamp it for me. Start to finish, it only took me three days and one trip to London to get a brand new, officially stamped birth certificate. Amazing.
This was all so pleasant and easy, that while I was at the embassy, I decided to get my passport renewed and booked another appointment for Tuesday this week. So on Tuesday I show up and got my picture taken (shit, I look old!), my fingerprints scanned, ... and when asked whether I wanted to pick the new passport up or have it mailed to my house. Thinking I would save both money and time, I opted for having it mailed to my house.
The friendly woman at the embassy happily took my money, punched holes in my old passport and told me it'd probably be at my door within a couple of weeks. We chatted a bit and then I went on my merry way to Brick Lane to talk about Mailpile, privacy and encryption at the Cybersalon! Happy, happy, ...
A few hours later, Emi reminds me that I need to have a valid passport when we go the the Italian embassy next week.
Next week.
My passport was full of holes. The new one arrives in two weeks.
Oops.
So I e-mail the embassy, asking them to pretty please make it a rush job so it will arrive by next Thursday, when we have our appointment. Rush jobs are a thing, right? They respond first thing Wednesday morning: yes, rush jobs exist, you pay twice as much and the passport gets made and put in the mail that same day. Sounded good to me. Within the hour the Embassy had taken payment over the phone and set everything in motion.
This morning, only 48 hours later, my new passport is in my hands here in Coventry, as is a receipt accompanied by a hand written note from the embassy, wishing us well for the upcoming wedding.
Truly amazing.
Thanks Iceland! Thanks Royal Mail! You guys rock.
