He called me from the USPS passport office. He had a hunch (certainly not the multiple times I told him) that he would need his birth certificate so he brought it with him.
Yes, but fortunately, when my SiL got her new replacement, the old one was invalidated. Anyone trying to travel with it might get a bad surprise.
Quite true - though if someone nefarious gets hold of it, there are other bad things they can do. Identity theft comes to mind. She definitely will want to be on the lookout for problems, if it doesn’t turn up.
Oh, Lord, ignorance was bliss. LOL
Even if it had not been reported as stolen, I think facial recognition is widely used now and that replacing the photo on the passport wouldn’t be of much use (for travel).
Presumably if the passport is checked against electronic records, the electronic records might contain an image of the original owner, and that might set up some red flags.
From doing some googling, it doesn’t sound like stolen passports are used all that much for travelling, but certainly can be used for other sorts of mischief. Hopefully I’ll never find out!
If she did leave it at Kinko’s and they (or anyone) found it, all they had to do was drop it in the nearest US mailbox. The postal service will deliver it to the address in the passport.
A US-issued passport doesn’t have its owner’s address in it.
Ah, that’s correct. They must just fwd it to the State Dept. then.
Yes it does. There’s a page where you are supposed to enter your home address.
Also, i once left a passport in a cab. I took the cab home from the airport, and my passport fell out of my pocket. I learned about this when i got a letter (sent to the address in my passport) telling me how i could pick it up from lost and found at taxi Central dispatching, or a nearby police station, or something. Anyway, i totally failed to notice I’d lost it, and was grateful both to the people who reached out to me and that I’d entered my address where it says to.
So, a US passport may not have the bearer’s home address, if they didn’t fill that in.
Now, I have to go home and check mine.
Uh-oh. I sent mine in back before Christmas and I haven’t heard anything yet.
At that time of year, you can add at least 2 or 3 weeks to the process because so many people are off during the holiday season. Still, if there is a way for you to check, I say check on it.
You can check online, and it just says “Not Available,” as opposed to “In Process.” They haven’t cashed the check, either. I sent it USPS Priority mail and it shows delivered. I think I’ll give them a call.
Not strictly passport-related, but my husband and I both have Global Entry. Not that I’ve used mine much - I’ve flown twice since I got it, and the one time, I didn’t enter the info when I bought the ticket, so I didn’t get to go through the TSA Pre-check line.
Anyway - I had to renew mine, last August. Almost missed the deadline, as I hadn’t been paying attention.
Nominal review times are 4-6 months - it’s now been over 6 months, and no progress as far as I can see. On the plus side, there was an announcement right up front saying “things are taking a lot longer, but we’ll honor your existing status for 1 year”.
Wow, yet something else regarding international travel that I knew nothing about! 
I’m going to assume that I’m not the only one who knows nothing about “Global Entry”, so here goes:
Travelers must be pre-approved for the Global Entry program. All applicants undergo a rigorous background check and in-person interview before enrollment. If a traveler was unable to schedule an interview at an Enrollment Center prior to their international travel, they have an option to complete their interview via Enrollment on Arrival upon their arrival to the United States.
While Global Entry’s goal is to speed travelers through the process, members may still be selected for further examination when entering the United States. Any violation of the program’s terms and conditions will result in the appropriate enforcement action and termination of the traveler’s membership privileges.
Just in case nobody’s mentioned it yet, what most people think is their birth certificate is just this nifty memento prepared by the hospital where they were born. It’s basically just a pretty document. The birth certificate you need is a certified copy of the birth certificate; this you order from the vital records agency for the jurisdiction where you were born. In my case, I have to order another copy of a report of birth abroad of a US citizen.
What?! So, if I had to use my birth certificate for some kind of legal purpose, it would be invalid until I got the “real” one? Lord, I think I’d just better stay home! I have the National Geographic channel and Trvl Channel. That’s good enough.
The only birth certificate i have was acceptable to get a passport, many moons ago. So this confuses me.