A Melbourne First

Today we decided to make the trip out to the American consulate to deal with our no-fee passports for Peace Corps. Since we are living abroad and will need our passports to return to America prior to staging, the process for applying for the passport is a bit different than for those residing in America. If you will be travelling outside of America (or reside abroad) and will need your passport after you submit your application, you're instructed to fill out the DS-11 form and take it to your nearest consulate or embassy to have a notary witness your signature in exchange for US$30. They are then to stamp it, place it in a sealed envelope and hand it back to you so that you can send it to the Peace Corps office. Well, this is what I understood from reading through the materials in our inviation package.

We both needed passport pictures so we went in search of a place that would do American passport pictures and/or had a functioning camera. I made the mistake of having my photos taken with a head scarf on, but didn't realise this until we had made it to the consulate and was informed that my photos were useless because of my "head covering".

In addition to my photos being useless, no one in the office had ever heard of a "Peace Corps passport" and refused to process our request unless we had a letter from the Peace Corps office with our names on it saying that we were eligible for such passports. After explaining various times that I needed to keep my passport because I live here and that it wasn't necessary for them to lodge the application for me, the head lady came over and explained that she would have to contact Peace Corps directly because she thought it was rediculous that we should have to send the applications ourselves when they could process it themselves. She thought that the instructions we were given only applied to people living in America. She didn't want us to get caught in any messy paperwork scandals so close to our departure date, so she kept Will's application until further notice and mine was returned to me because of my photos. She also mentioned that there's no such thing as a "Peace Corps passport"--she seemed quite happy to share this with me.

We were the first people in the history of the existance of the American consulate in Melbourne to apply for passports for the purpose of Peace Corps.

Two things about the application process that I have found annoying:

1. The pre-paid FedEx envelopes that Peace Corps has been sending us are only for use within America. I have about 3 of them and the day I was actually going to use it to mail my dental clearance documents, I realise that they're only for use within the US.
   
2. It seems as if no one is really sure as to how to properly deal with overseas applicants, I guess it doesn't happen very often. We didn't receive specific instructions on how to apply for the no-fee passport. If the consulate doesn't know, how are we meant to know?
3. They should really prepare some sort of document with tips on applying from abroad and include that with the initial package they get from their recruiter. Probably only 1% of applicants apply from abroad, but it would still be useful.