At the moment, I have about a month left to travel on my passport. It expires in January next year and as hundreds of people who are currently queuing outside of the passport office will tell you, they don't let you travel unless you have at least six months until expiry on your passport.
So currently, I can travel for about a month, then I'll not be able to go anywhere until this expiring passport gets sorted out.
I don't want to get caught out. I mean, sure, I'm starting a new job in a few weeks, but I would like to get on a plane and go somewhere for a while. My current line of thinking is work for the next year, save a lot, then maybe, just maybe, go do the Camino next year. Well it's a thought.
Today, while I was pretending to work, I started to sort out my passport renewal.
A new passport, which goes through the regular channels, when renewed, where you don't line up at the Passport Office for an emergency one, costs you $308. For a PVU (Price versus Use) it's $30 a year. Sure, no problem.
Of course, you have to face some low level bureaucrat at the post office to get it all finalised, and there is the torture of having your passport photos taken (another job for the post office, I believe). Thankfully, when you're renewing your passport you don't have to get a JP or some other qualified person to notarise your photos any more.
What got me, however, is the speed of the Immigration Department's website. Just navigating the form was galacially slow. To the point that I went and made a cup of tea waiting for my address to populate. It was criminal and ludicrous. How is it we are allegedly a smart country, yet the government websites are SO crap. Okay, it wasn't quite as bad as the Medicare app, and certainly it's a lot better than the Government Security app, which frankly, does not work - but the speed of this site was aggravating beyond belief. Maybe that's why so many people are queuing at the passport office - though the sheer velocity of the Passport Office software, it takes an age to get your paperwork through.
After toying with this document for most of the afternoon, between waiting for fields to validate, doing a bit of work, and making the odd cup of tea, my application was finally finished. But it's ridiculous that our government agency's software is so crap.
Maybe this is another job for the new guys. Surely they can fix some of this stuff up.
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