Fast Passport!

Wow! Unbelievable! My passort just came, only one week (nearly to the hour!) after my appointment with the consul!

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This was considerably more efficient and less stressful than getting our replacement Visa credit card.

Passport:
- Fill out and print form, get photo and self-addressed postal envelope
- Get appointment via email (one business day after contacting the consulate)
- Get to the consulate (overnight trip), spend less than 15 minutes at the appointment
- Postman calls us a week later; he's 5 minutes away. Knocks on our door; I sign, and I have my passport!

Visa:
- Spend 2 hours on the phone reporting the stolen card. Wrong card gets cancelled. They order a temporary card, to be delivered 3 days later.
- We wait all morning by the gate for UPS
- We call again; UPS gives us another timeframe
- We wait. We call. UPS says that Visa recalled the card, since it had been too long.
- We call Visa.
- We wait.
- We call UPS, and arrange to go *there* - outside Montpellier. Google maps say it's less than 1/2 hr drive. We give it longer.
- Over an hour of driving (traffic, wrong turns, then a very helpful pharmacist) we spend 5 minutes getting our package.
-The retun trip was easier, but we still were gone just over 2 hours. And we're both frazzled.