53 Mondays Screening

I plan to look back on the summer of 24 as the time when Irish-born Goldbachs earned American passports. We've jumped over the first hurdle by successfully getting Mia's request approved. But with a twist.

It is taking more time and effort to register the births of both Mia (16) and Dylan (13) with the American embassy in Ireland. The process required two trips to the embassy with Mia because the officials wouldn't accept her first request for a passport without having her birth registered to an American parent.

We accomplished all the paperwork online and paid the fees but there is a convoluted process that I still do not understand that prevents an clear path to validating the birth with consular officials. All the required documentation is filed online first with a follow-up in-person interview required to complete the process. Getting that done the first time is problematic.

As we waited at our 10AM appointment, we watched every third applicant being rejected by consular officials. This meant that American citizens were unable to show they were present in the States for at least five years since their 14th birthdays. With requisite documentation, you can claim blocks of time that add up to five years. But we watched couples with children who could not prove they had lived in America for the required period of time since they turned 14.

Previously, I created some tension at the security checkpoint since my man bag had too many pieces of electronic equipment in it and that meant I got the full secondary inspection treatment. The embassy's security detail did not appreciate seeing I had an Osmo Pocket 3 camera, a Ricoh Theta V camera, a Samsung phone, a battery pack, and assorted cables. However, they seemed totally oblivious to the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses that I carried with me into the embassy.

When returned this week, I kept my bag with Harry and Dylan in Mister Magpie's, a local coffee shop.

So now we start another passport application process, this time for Dylan Goldbach. I'm prepared to be turned away on the first attempt so we'll make it a field trip and stay overnight in a local flat that offers a 10% discount through Booking.com.

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