A Smirk!
A smirk, is a smirk, is just a smirk – or is it? A smirk, according to the Oxford English Dictionary is “a smug or silly smile”, and who, may I ask is to be the judge? This question is not as trivial as it may seem once you understand the situation.
Last month my husband applied to renew his New Zealand passport. He duly sent in the 2 required photos, and all the other paraphernalia that goes with all government procedures, along with the date of travel (November 17 2008). Given that he was born in N.Z. and has held a passport for years he did not expect any complications.
As the date drew nearer I was a little concerned, and so I was more than a little relieved to see the N.Z. official envelope when it arrived yesterday (Nov. 10th). Then, can you imagine our surprise when it turned out that the new passport was not inside, but a request that 2 new photos be submitted due to the fact that in the ones sent my husband was deemed to be smirking (my sister-in-law later informed me that you are not allowed to smile in their passport photos!). Now as ridiculous as this may seem, it was all the more ludicrous when you take into consideration that we are talking about professional passport photos taken of a 50 + yrs man….smirking???
Given the lateness of the situation, I called Wellington N.Z. and spoke to an official since I had already researched all other avenues, I could not find a service that could get the new photos back to N.Z. earlier than the 17th. The gentleman I must say did attempt to be helpful, given as he said that I was not the primary party and therefore he could not divulge any real information. However he was not all surprised when he heard that the photos had been returned due to the fact that my husband was judged to be smirking and that although the date of his departure had been recorded he felt that his department could not have ascertained how long the delivery and return would have been for said documents to and from Hawaii – longer than 4 days even an idiot I think would have seen that – but losing it with anybody in an official position is usually not the means to the end one would like, so I held my breathe. The final conclusion was that I should contact the Consulate General here, who I had already discovered was out of town until tomorrow.
So I shall wait until tomorrow and hope that they will be able to arrange some emergency travel documents. My husband is going home for his mother’s birthday, unfortunately perhaps the last one she will remember since she, like too many older people is in a rapidly declining state of Alzheimer’s. So you see a smirk, may just be a lot more than just a smirk.
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Add comment November 11th, 2008