I feel like this is the "week of waiting". Except it's taking way more than a week. Jeremy applied for this position in early June and here we are, finally getting our official move date (December 1st). Now we're waiting. Waiting for the estimate for our pets' vet visits (shots, microchips, health certificate) to be approved, waiting for the Realtor to get back to us, waiting to find out when we can visit to look at apartments. Waiting, waiting, waiting.
I have to admit, they're taking very good care of us. They're paying for the Realtor and the week long visit to France, as well as shipping our items and bringing the pets over, it's just taking so dang long!
A note for those who have never had a passport: the rules have changed, at least in NJ. You have to have the "long form birth certificate" in order to apply for a passport. My birth certificate was just the generic "name, date, time, place of birth" which is apparently not good enough anymore. The long form birth certificate has all of that, plus your parents names and information, the doctor who delivered you, all kinds of stuff.
I ordered my birth certificate online here (NJ residents only). You need to attach an image of your driver's license, both front and back. If you want your birth certificate mailed to an address other than the one on your license, you just have to attach a scan of a dated, signed piece of paper stating you want it sent to a different address and give the address. I just used a blank piece of printer paper and it was good enough for them. I was really nervous that my scanned images wouldn't be approved because my scanner does this weird thing were it cuts off the border of the image all the way around, so my license had the border and some of the bar-code cut out, and my "change of address" paper had about half a letter from each side of the paragraph cut out. I was quoted 4-6 weeks and it came in exactly 8 weeks.
So then with my new birth certificate and social security card in hand, I filed for my passport. They took my picture, kept one copy and gave me the other, and promptly charged me $11 for two stinkin' 2x2" pictures. You should bring extra passport size photos with you so I need to find someplace that will do it for cheaper than that. They also take your birth certificate with the passport form so if you need your birth certificate for something else, keep in mind you won't have it for a while. I got my passport in 4 weeks and my birth certificate back in 6 weeks. Luckily, the woman at the office had warned me I may not receive them at the same time or I would have been freaking out!
While I wait, I may as well do something productive and go through more boxes. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment with any thoughts or questions!
I have to admit, they're taking very good care of us. They're paying for the Realtor and the week long visit to France, as well as shipping our items and bringing the pets over, it's just taking so dang long!
A note for those who have never had a passport: the rules have changed, at least in NJ. You have to have the "long form birth certificate" in order to apply for a passport. My birth certificate was just the generic "name, date, time, place of birth" which is apparently not good enough anymore. The long form birth certificate has all of that, plus your parents names and information, the doctor who delivered you, all kinds of stuff.
I ordered my birth certificate online here (NJ residents only). You need to attach an image of your driver's license, both front and back. If you want your birth certificate mailed to an address other than the one on your license, you just have to attach a scan of a dated, signed piece of paper stating you want it sent to a different address and give the address. I just used a blank piece of printer paper and it was good enough for them. I was really nervous that my scanned images wouldn't be approved because my scanner does this weird thing were it cuts off the border of the image all the way around, so my license had the border and some of the bar-code cut out, and my "change of address" paper had about half a letter from each side of the paragraph cut out. I was quoted 4-6 weeks and it came in exactly 8 weeks.
So then with my new birth certificate and social security card in hand, I filed for my passport. They took my picture, kept one copy and gave me the other, and promptly charged me $11 for two stinkin' 2x2" pictures. You should bring extra passport size photos with you so I need to find someplace that will do it for cheaper than that. They also take your birth certificate with the passport form so if you need your birth certificate for something else, keep in mind you won't have it for a while. I got my passport in 4 weeks and my birth certificate back in 6 weeks. Luckily, the woman at the office had warned me I may not receive them at the same time or I would have been freaking out!
While I wait, I may as well do something productive and go through more boxes. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment with any thoughts or questions!