Miami Passport Agency Closed until Further Notice
In an interesting turn of events today, the State Department just announced that the Miami Passport Agency would be closed until further notice, stranding many passengers and travelers who need to leave the country.
Customers who had appointments at the agency were turned away as the State Department issued a tweet stating that the agency was closed. If you had a passport to pickup or an appointment, you should call the National Passport Hotline for more information.
The Miami Passport Agency is currently closed to the public until further notice & is unable to take appointments or process passports (1/2)
— Travel – State Dept (@TravelGov) April 24, 2017
If you are scheduled to pick up passport or have pending appointment at Miami Passport Agency, call 1-877-487-2778 for assistance. (2/2)
— Travel – State Dept (@TravelGov) April 24, 2017
So what happened?
The cause? Flooding, as apparently a pipe burst in the building kicking out the passport agency and other tenants in the building.
Passport and Visa Pages
Customers were being turned away at the door, and when asked where they could go to get their passport, the answers were not quite what you’d expect.
San Juan, New Orleans, Atlanta, and any other available state.
Mind you, New Orleans is a 12 hour drive. Atlanta, 10 hours, and San Juan? A 3 hour flight (not to mention the last minute fares on San Juan airfares are outrageous). Not only is this not feasible for anyone, it’s actually pretty insulting. I’m truly surprised that they couldn’t have at least set up shop in a different location OR at least had someone there to return passports of people who had them waiting for pickup. Then again, I realized it’s the government, and bureaucracy reigns supreme.
Twitter user Cliff Levine perhaps said it best. He posted to Twitter about his experience tweeting at POTUS, the State Department, Rex Tillerson, and Donald Trump. I don’t expect any of them to be replying anytime soon. I do agree with him when he says “I can’t contemplate how a country as great as the Untied States can’t figure out a way to serve its citizens in a situation like this”
@DavidJNeal @StateDept @POTUS @RexTilllerson @realDonaldTrump @WPLGLocal10 @wsvn US State Department unable to issue passports because of rain damage 😂 pic.twitter.com/HyI3nzgxUR
— Cliff Levine (@v3ktorious) April 24, 2017
C’mon Government…
It would make a lot of sense in this situation to set up a secondary place, even a fricking FEMA trailer, with equipment to help. I suppose that when you’re the President and you’re cutting the budget to the State Department, this is perhaps one of the consequences.
Moral of the story, don’t procrastinate when you’ve got to deal with the government. You probably shouldn’t have waited until the day before your trip (or week before) to get that passport.
April 24, 2017
Wow, with the anger there is over a burst pipe flooding a building less than 24 hours prior, I would hate to hear what happens with weather delays due to a storm: “C’mon airlines, you knew this category 5 hurricane was coming days ago, It would make a lot of sense in this situation to set up a secondary place, even a fricking FEMA airstrip, with equipment to help.”
April 24, 2017
Your response is just silly 🙂 Airstrip. Hard. Getting passports out of a file cabinet? Easy.
April 25, 2017
Trump’s fault no doubt.
Actually if you think about it. If the office flooded say overnight and all the paper is wet it’s hard to print passports on a card table out front I would think.
April 25, 2017
Jon
This is a great article the issue at hand now is how does Florida get an expedited passport as many people will not fly to Atlanta or New Orleans. Please post about alternative options using a registered passport Expeditor. They can secure passports nationwide as quickly as 24 hours.