To recap for those new here: I quit my job to accept an invitation to join the Peace Corps, and I was scheduled to leave for The Gambia in western Africa on June 2, 2020. Everything looked good to go until March of 2020, when COVID-19 made everything go crazy and the Peace Corps withdrew all its volunteers worldwide. My departure was delayed repeatedly. On Dec. 10, 2020, they emailed me to ask if I’d be willing to accept a different assignment and I told them I would.
For some time now, I’ve been operating on the assumption that the Peace Corps isn’t going to work out and I’ll be pleasantly surprised if it does. I’ve been doing freelance editing and I recently wrapped up a job working for the Greene County (Ohio) Board of Elections, where I was testing voting machines for several weeks, then making sure things went smoothly at a polling place on election day.
A few months ago, I heard from the Peace Corps since they needed me to reauthorize a background check. I’d already been fingerprinted and checked by the FBI, but enough time had passed that they needed to check again. Thankfully, I didn’t have to resubmit fingerprints.
Last week, I heard from the Peace Corps again. They needed me to re-apply for my Peace Corps passport.
Peace Corps volunteers don’t travel on the standard passports used by tourists and business travelers; they use special passports used for travel on U.S. government business. I applied for such a passport shortly after I accepted my invitation to serve in the Peace Corps and I got an email message saying it had been issued at the beginning of March 2020. The Peace Corps was holding onto it and planned to present it to me when I gathered with others serving in the same country just before we left the United States.
On Wednesday, Nov. 3, I got an email message from the Peace Corps that said in part “we are reaching out to all Invitees that do not have a passport on file with us to begin the passport application process.” It asked me to apply for a passport, which seemed rather confusing since I already had done so. But I followed the link and it sent me to a website that asked if I’d already applied, so I clicked yes, at which point it said to email Peace Corps Travel and Transportation.
After some time of emailing back and forth and communicating with other invitees in limbo, I was able to find out what was going on. Peace Corps passports are only good for five years minus one day, not the 10 years minus one day that regular passports are good for. Many countries don’t want to let you in unless your passport remains valid for some time after your planned departure. If I were to leave for service in mid-2022, then go through three months of training followed by two years of service, my passport would have less than six months left on it at the end of my service.
Unfortunately, the instructions they gave me didn’t tell me that I was supposed to put the passport number and date of issue for my previous Peace Corps passport on the application for a new one, not the number and date of issue for my most recent standard passport. Thankfully, another invitee clued me in just before I sent out the application with the wrong information. But I didn’t have the correct passport number or date of issue since I’d never gotten the passport myself; it was delivered to Peace Corps headquarters.
Fortunately, they did email me the passport number and date of issue, so I was able to fill out the application correctly and send it in to them.
I still don’t know what country I’ll serve in if I do end up in Peace Corps service, nor do I know what my assignment will be. And I’m still making plans for what I’ll do if the Peace Corps doesn’t work out.