Legendary British R&B singer is in ICE Lockup - Jane Eugene

[DFW]

42. I don't know the rules for the UK and their foreign office.

In emergency situations the State Department can issue a temporary passport on location, but its intent is usually to get the citizen in distress back home.

During Covid, I was in the States in early August looking at a passport about to expire in January. Even DC said it would take 18 months for a renewal to go through. State said the best I could do was to get an appointment at the US consulate in Frankfurt and get a temporary passport there. It was good for a year in which time I was expected to get back to the USA, and the waiting time should have gone down drastically. I said, OK, better than nothing.

So, the moment I got back to Germany, I called the Consulate, asked to speak to Consular, and asked what I should bring with me. They told me, and I did. When I got there, I told the embassy guy I needed a one year temp. He looked at my passport and said, "Why don't you just do a normal renewal, which is good for ten years?" I said that Washington said I couldn't. He said that well, Frankfurt says you can. I told him I liked what Frankfurt said better.

He changed a few details on the application, said it would take about four weeks. Twelve days later, it was in a FedEx envelope at my house in Düsseldorf, having been issued in Washington, and I had not paid for expedited service. I couldn't believe it. I thought they must have invited a guest efficiency team from Switzerland or something.