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Well, I picked up my one-year temporary (limited-validity) passport from the US Embassy in Phnom Penh. Sure doesn't look like much, especially in comparison with my "old school" 10-years (full-validity) passport with its additional pages. The new passport has the ID page, a signature page, a personal data page, etc. Then, it has five (5) visa pages, and one endorsement page. That's it. It's as thin Dicey's (Andrew) hair. NOTE: A temporary (limited-validity) passport cannot be extended or have pages added to it. Anyway, as I stated, it's valid for one-year from the date of issue. So, I don't expect (and you shouldn't either) for Cambodian Immigration to offer anything more than (possibly) a six-month multiple entry visa. I am going to probably just get a three-month visa and plan on staying in country until I get my ten-years passport in hand. (Most countries require at least six months validity left on your passport, prior to issuing a visa.) Now, for those concerned who may be involved in this mess of waiting for their passports to be printed and sent back to the nearest embassy abroad. If you have not contacted your local US Embassy, and if it has been more than ten business days since you applied and paid for your new passport, I strongly suggest for you to ring up the US Embassy nearest you. Let them know when your current passport expires, and when your current visa will expire. If you and the representative determine that you need a limited-validity passport, they will just have you come into the embassy and have it sorted for you. No need to make a reservation. The staff will sort that for you as well. Just go in when they tell you to be there. They had me in and out in less than 20 minutes, yesterday. This included the time in the guard shack. Also, they will give you a two page letter, explaining your temporary passport and informing you of any / all requirements necessary to file for your full ten-years passport, prior to the temporary passport expiring. Here are the four basic requirements that will have to be met by every American Citizen, when filing for their full-validity document. A completed form DS-5504 - 212249.pdf One passport sized photo graph - see form DS-5504 for specifics regarding submitting an appropriate image. Your temporary (limited-validity) passport. (Prior to it expiring.) The letter explaining all of this. NOTE: If you wait until your temporary (limited-validity) passport has expired, prior to filing again for your ten-years passport, you will be required to pay the full cost of the new passport at that time. So, DO NOT let your temporary passport expire, prior to filing for your full ten-years passport. There are other requirements that may be ticked in that letter. If they are, make sure you read and comply with those requirements.

There are quite a few places to get visa extensions but if you're staying near Serendipity Beach you could do worse than ANA Travel opposite Monkey Republic on Serendipity Beach Road. Quite good English comprehension and very businesslike. Same price as elsewhere so I guess you make your choice according to your location.

This could easily be an actual letter to any Embassy or Passport Office. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Sirs, I'm in the process of renewing my passport, and still cannot believe how is it that Sky Television has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a bleeding satellite dish from them back in 1988, and yet, the Government is still asking me where I was bloody born and on what date. Do you guys do this by hand? My birth date you have on my pension book. It's on all the income tax forms I've filed for the past 30 years. It is on my National Health card. My driving license. My car insurance. On the last four damn passports I've had. It's on all those stupid customs declaration forms I've had to fill out before being allowed off the plane over the last 30 years. All those insufferable census forms. Would somebody please take note, once and for all, that my mother's name is Mary Anne, my father's name is Robert and I'd be absolutely astounded if that WOULD ever change between now and when I die!! I apologize, I'm really pissed off this morning. Between you an' me, I've had enough of this bullshit! You send the application to my house, then you ask me for my bleeding address!! What is going on? Do you have a gang of neanderthal arseholes working there? Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? I don't want to dig up Yasser Arafat, for shit sakes. I just want to go and park my arse on some sandy beach somewhere. And would someone please tell me, why would you give a shit whether I plan on visiting a farm in the next 15 days? If I ever got the urge to do something weird to a chicken or a goat, believe you me, you'd be the last fecking people I'd want to tell! Well, I have to go now,'cause I have to go to the other end of the poxy city to get another fecking copy of my birth certificate, to the tune of £30. Would it be so complicated to have all the services in the same spot to assist in the issuance of a new passport the same day? Nooooooooooooo, that would be too damn easy and maybe make sense. You'd rather have us running all over the fecking place like chickens with our heads cut off, then WE have to find some arsehole to confirm that it's really me on the damn picture - you know, the one where we're not allowed to smile?! (bureaucratic fecking morons) Hey, do you know why we couldn't smile if we wanted to? Because we're totally pissed off! Signed An Irate Citizen P.S. Remember what I said above about the picture and getting someone to confirm that it's me? Well, my family has been in this country since 1776 ... I have served in the military for something over 30 years and have had full security clearances over 25 of those years enabling me to undertake highly secretive missions all over the world. However, I have to get someone 'important' to verify who I am - you know, someone like my doctor .. WHO WAS BORN AND RAISED IN fecking PAKISTAN