I got mine this past fall, and it took about 6 weeks. someone posted on here recently tho, that post offices were saying 10-12 weeks because the demand.

Go to there web site you can track your progress

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, Waterboy, that web site didn't have any record of my son (or had more than one person with his last name, birthday, and last 4 digits of social security number).

The same thing happened when I checked on my passport, so, I called the number on the application and was told that "it happens sometimes, people fall thru the cracks getting posted to the web site" but, she was able to look up my name and tell me the progress.

If you need it back quickly, you can pay to have it expedited. It's not cheap, but if you need it... Don't know where you live, but in Northern Virginia, the postal workers who are trained to process passports a VERY knowledgeable and helpful.

For those of you who still need to get passports for your children, please keep in mind that both parents need to be present when application is made. If not, there are forms that need to be filled out and notarized before application can be made.

Assuming your flying into STT and taking a daysail or something into the BVI you don't need a passport.

Water travel passports will not be required until 01/01/08.

and for all of those people who want to argue with me I did a BVI daysail from st thomas this last friday (01/26/07) and flew back to detroit on 01/27/07... all with no passport.

How could they allow you there without a passport? That's a risk I wouldn't take.

Matt, I really don't want to argue with you :o) but.....when we took a boat to the BVI's from St Thomas last year, we had to stop in St John on the way and on the way back and show our passport. That's one of the first things that they asked us for when we got on the boat. Also cost us an additional 20.00.

Matt, Did you have to show any form of ID (Driv Lic, Birth Cert, etc?)

Also, most of the websites for day sails say that passports are necessary for doing BVI trips.

ferried to jost yesterday using license and b.c. Not required until feb 2008 traveling by water.

There is so much information on passports, it's driving me crazy.

All I know is I want everybody (that's 8 of us) to have passports so there are no problems when we go to BVI's.

I was doing some research for my boss who is scheduled to travel to Amsterdam next month and he realized he has an expired passport. If you have travel plans already (within 2 weeks), you can bring a copy of your itinerary to the nearest passport agency (Boston's is below) and get your passport the next day. It costs extra, of course but better to be safe than sorry. The link is here:

http://travel.state.gov/passport/about/agencies/agencies_913.html

If you need your passport urgently, generally in less than 2 weeks, you may contact one of our Passport Agencies listed below. All agencies take applications only by appointment. Please call in advance.

BOSTON Passport Agency
Thomas P. O'Neill Federal Building
10 Causeway Street,
Suite 247
Boston, MA 02222-1094

New Englander

My husband and I are traveling to STT on Thursday. We applied at our local probate court on Monday 12/4/06 and the passports were mailed to us on 1/12/07. Just a little under 6 weeks. We obtained them because of travel to BVI during our stay.

I just received a reply to a quote request for a day sail. This was the very first sentence..

"Lora,
Here is the information on our sail to the British Island of Jost Van Dyke. Most important, you must have a valid passport for this trip. We board at the Sapphire Beach Resort's marina at 7:45am for this trip so we can get everyone on board and make sure all paperwork is in order before leaving the dock. "

So why would they stress the passport for a day sail, if the rules don't apply to boats??

Matt and Bill22 are right!!! I'm in shock. I was worried for nothing. Look at both New Horizons ll and Limnos' web page and they both say passports are not needed. We'll just bring my son's birth certificate with the raised seal and that should work. I think we all learned a lesson here. Thanks Matt and Bill.

Does the procuring of a passport cause some annoying rash or fatal disease of which I am unaware?

I went to the New Horizons website and this was at the very bottom..

"Birth certificates with a current drivers license will be accepted until the end of December 2006
Current passports are accepted."

I can see why all the confusion. I was under the impression that it has always been mandatory to have a passport to go to the BVI from the USVI. My best friend lives there and told me that.

Procuring a passports can cause quite a bit of anxiety starting at my post office where I've waited in lines for at least an hour total, only to be told DH has to present for minors to get passports. Then we all miss an afternoon of school/work to come back, but we picked the wrong post office and it's 4:10. You can only go to one post office and it has to be before 4pm. You start pulling your hair out. Once you get the paperwork submitted, one passport comes back with a typo. Pull out some more hair. Try to figure out which on-line form is for typos. Take screaming son in for another picture. Submit your best guess form, only to be told it wasn't right so paperwork was forwarded back to main issuer so now there are two passports in the system for my son, but none in my hands yet. Because there are two, the on line system won't work for tracking. Eventually we'll get the passport and eventually we'll need it, just not this year to travel be water to the BVI's.

Pam, from New Horizons, e-mailed me today saying a birth certificate and picture i.d. will still work. They have two statements on their web site. The first, in the middle of the page, says b.c. and i.d. will work, but statement at the bottom says passport needed.