What's the problem?

When we filed for our married license, we were given two copies of our certificate which were of course sealed (when they were issued) and then signed by our officiant, who then filed another copy of the certificate with the state of Tennessee to make it legal.

On July 7, around 2 weeks after our wedding, I walked into the social security office as Charla Jo Crowley, with only a form requesting to change my name and one of the two copies of our marriage certificate, and walked out of the place Charla Crowley English - legally.

That same day, I went onto a US military base and with that same marriage certificate (and a letter from the SS office that my name was changed and a new card was on it's way) got myself into their system as a spouse, was given an I.D. Card (and with it, the power to run around military bases all over the world!), and, because we were about to be sent to the UK, the instructions to apply for my "no-fee" passport....

That SAME DAY, I took the marriage certificate and the letter from the social security office and like magic, I was given a brand new driver's license with my new last name.

A few days later, passport forms filled out and tiny photos in hand, I took the EXACT SAME marriage certificate to the passport office to apply for my no-fee passport. 3 weeks later, without a hitch, my passport arrived.

rewind back to six weeks ago - I knew my current tourist passport expired this summer, and with travel to the US coming up, and the fact that you aren't supposed to travel for leisure on your no-fee passport, I figured I'd go ahead and renew it. I filled out the appropriate paperwork, took the money they require, my military I.D., my social security card, my current tourist passport and - you guessed it - the other copy of the marriage certificate they'd given us on our wedding day - turned it all in, and fully expected to have my passport in hand by now.

NOPE!

All of a sudden, our marriage certificate isn't valid "proof of marriage and name change" because it was sealed by the state of Tennessee on the day we applied for the certificate (which is standard practice) and not AFTER our wedding date -

My frustration, of course, starts with the fact that I've received, what? FOUR other GOVERNMENT ISSUED documents using the SAME marriage certificates, one of which was a PASSPORT (Nevermind the fact that I ALSO have a visa issued in my married name), and never once has anyone ever even looked at it twice! Now, suddenly it's not "enough"???? Furthermore, I turned my stuff in SIX WEEKS ago....SIX FUCKING WEEKS! And you just NOW got a chance to tell me there is a "problem"?!?!?!?

The kicker in ALL of this is that on friday afternoon, when this problem got started, they emailed not me, but MY HUSBAND, and then, moments after they sent the email and I tried to call them, NOBODY WOULD ANSWER THE PHONES. it's so frustrating when someone is basically controlling your life (okay, travel plans), but they can't be bothered to treat an urgent problem with ANY sense of urgency at all - on top of everything else, Monday is a holiday, so I won't even hear back from these people until Tuesday at the earliest....

Hopefully, once I get one of these lovely, hard working, accommodating, helpful people (and by that, I mean non-phone answering, vague email-sending, non-helpful sons of bitches) to talk to me, we can get the whole mess straightened out, and my passport expedited....cause if I don't get to go home next month, it WON'T be pretty.


FML!

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