Government identity tracking is a mess. Ken’s Baggage is to be avoided.

Please don’t make the mistake we did– If you’re planning to travel internationally, be SURE to check your children’s passports expiration dates. A small child’s passport is only good for 5 years, not 10.

As we were on our way to the airport, we discovered that our older daughther’s passport had expired. When we got to the airport, they of course wouldn’t let her on the plane–she and I would have to get a passport extension and travel on a latter flight.

Complicating matters, the State Department won’t grant a passport extension for a minor without both parents present or a notarized statement from the missing parent. (The goal for this is understandable, to prevent one parent from abducting a child.)

We had to quickly get a notarized statement from my wife before the plan left. Unfortunately, we were stymied by a combination of confusing governmental identity regulations and an extreme lack of helpfulness from the Seatac airport notary public (rel=nofollow,nopatronize)

The utterly unsympathetic notary insisted that a current US passport was not a valid form of ID for a notary public because it lacks a “physical description” as required by Washington State Law. I checked– the washington State does in fact require a “physical description”, and is mute on the point of whether passports are valid– but, come on– The US State Department consent form specifically says that a Passport is a valid ID. The University of Washington notary is happy to take a passport.

I even tried offering to bring back the drivers license from home later. No dice.

So now my wife is going to have to do something complicated to remotely notarize a statement at the embassy at her destination, which requires 24+ hours travel to reach. Until that happens we’re stuck. Sigh. Like I said, check your passport expiration dates early.