U.S. Consulate helps take care of Team Kaiserslautern Military Community

May 4, 2010
Senior Airman Amanda Dick 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — The U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt, Germany, partnered with the Ramstein passport office May 4 to care for Kaiserslautern Military Community families by providing expedited service for passport applications.

"We are here as an outreach to help the military community," said Michelle Solinsky, consulate American Citizen Services deputy in charge of passport operations. "We realize with the summer transfer and tourist travel seasons, a lot of people need passports and need them fairly quickly."

Military members, Department of Defense civilians and their families poured into the Ramstein Community Center, where the event was held, to take care of passport issues and more.

"The whole purpose for this was to provide a one-stop shop for everyone," said Army Staff Sgt. Terra Bradley, 86th Mission Support Squadron passport office non-commissioned officer in charge of passports. "You could get what you needed in one stop immigration, social security, federal benefits, consular reports of birth and tourist passports."

Members from the Consulate's Social Security/Veteran's Affairs and Immigrant Visa Services offices were on hand to help answer members' questions.

"The Social Security/Veteran's Affairs representatives were there for members to ask questions or file a social security application for their children," Solinsky said. "The Immigrant Visa Services representatives dealt with 'how do I get my foreign-born spouse or children over to the U.S.? So, members may have just had questions and not needed to see us at all."

Processing more than 400 cases, the consulate's visit not only helped members of the KMC, but also provided some relief for the Ramstein passport office.

"Ramstein is a huge base, and it's difficult I think at this point for the passports office to handle all the new babies, the Visa page requests and the passports in a timely manner," Solinsky said. "We shut down our office to come down here and help the passport office as well as servicemembers and their families."

As KMC members filled the room, the process of applying for a passport seemed the same, making sure all the paperwork was in order and taking an oath to verify information was true and correct. However, there was one major difference -- the return time.

"We'll take in all the applications, go back to the consulate, try to process them as quickly as possible and mail them back here," Solinsky said. "So, they should get back within two to three weeks, which is a pretty good turn-around time."

Normally, the process takes anywhere from two to three months before members see their passports, but the expedited process is right in time for a change in seasons.

"Hopefully if they have my passport back to me in a couple of weeks like they say they will, I'll be able to take a nice long trip this summer and take my family with me," said Army Staff Sgt. Theron Hudson, 1st Air and Space Communications Operations Squadron network technician who has been in Germany for five months.

The consulate serves approximately 20 bases in Germany and visits Ramstein once a year to help military members and their families with expedited passport services. Sometime in June, Ms. Solinsky said the consulate will be helping the military community in the Bavaria region of Germany at U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwoehr, USAG Ansbach, USAG Hohenfels and USAG Bamburg.

For more information on the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt, visit http://frankfurt.usconsulate.gov/.