Passport Renewal While Abroad
My passport was due to expire in 2023, so I decided I'd better start early on the renewal process. Renewing a passport while abroad is a bit different. Only one place in Vanuatu takes passport-quality photos. Quite a few Chinese shops in Port Vila will take them, but they're low quality, like you'd find in a fun photo booth at an arcade. Unfortunately the passport-quality place's lighting system wasn't working properly. The umbrella-shrouded flashes weren't firing, resulting in their photos having heavy shadows. The dept. of state guidelines specifically state 'no shadows'. They also state no uniform shirts, by the way, among other rules. So I had someone in the office take my picture with my phone, without a flash, as I stood up against a plain white wall. Shadow problem solved, though it took a few tries to get a crisp photo. I monkeyed with trying to crop it correctly, but was never quite happy with it. The old dept. of state web site