2019-02-20 Welcome to Miami

I went to downtown Miami to the Passport Agency yesterday and got my passport renewal application finished. It will take another 3 to 4 days before I can receive the new passport. Now I've got this monkey out of my back, I mean this worry out of my way, I've learned that I don't have to renew my Chinese visa because it still has about 8 years before it expires. A lot of travelers traveled with two passports, a new one and an old one with the effective visa. Looks like I will have to do that for a while.

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It was a challenging experience yesterday when I went to downtown Miami. It was a sunny and pleasant day. The area I went was well developed. More new high rise buildings have been erected in recent years. The City of Miami is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. because of its nice weather and geographical location. Somebody said that it's the "Capital of Latin America" due to the influx of wealthy people from those Latin American countries who're seeking a safe heaven.

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I usually wouldn't go to downtown if I don't have to because of the congested traffic, the safety environment, and the expensive parking. e.g., The parking at the Omani Center costed $10 per hour. I was lucky that after I drove into the maze of the huge building parking lot and found a parking space, I was very close to the entrance of the passport agency office. I had to wait in three different lines before I could complete my application. There were heavy securities in the building because it is a Federal agency office. I saw police everywhere. First, they screened all applicants for proper application documentations. The second line was for signing people in so that they could wait in line with the assigned numbers. Then everybody waited in a sitting area until their number got called. The whole process took me almost two hours to finish. I still think it was not so bad since reading from some online reviews, somebody had to wait up to 6 hours before they finished with the person.

This type of passport renewal is only for people who has emergency needs. I would not recommend to do this if there is any other choice. It you mail in your application, it'd take about 4 weeks to get it back without all these trouble and the extra cost for the rush service.