Photo By Brady Gross | The U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden Passport Office will offer a passport rodeo March 7,...... read more read more
Subscribe
The U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden Passport Office will offer a passport rodeo March 7, from 8–11:30 a.m. and 1–3:30 p.m., at Building 1023E, Room 151, here on Clay Kaserne.
This next passport rodeo iteration comes after a series of successful tourist passport and SOFA card rodeos that began as a major effort by the Garrison passport office in early last year as a way of continuing to service a growing community with no expected increase in staff.
The idea came from Roman Rodriguez, the USAG Wiesbaden Military Personnel Division Chief, who began looking at creative solutions to combat the longer than usual wait times community members were experiencing—just to schedule an appointment.
“Last year I was kicking around ideas trying to figure out how to pick up that slack,” Rodriguez said. “We were getting a lot of complaints—rightfully so—having to wait for months just to get an appointment to get passports done, same with SOFA.”
He asked the other MPDs in the theater what they were coping with personnel shortages and learned that Kaiserslautern Military Community hosted a passport and SOFA walk-in event every six months to help clear their calendar of appointments.
Rodriguez introduced the first passport rodeo focused on tourist passport renewals in early 2024, before incorporating initial tourist passport and SOFA processing in subsequent rodeos throughout the year.
The last rodeo hosted in early February, serviced 267 customers over a two-day period.
The rodeos are held approximately every six weeks, and despite their success, Rodriguez said he doesn’t anticipate this frequency changing anytime soon.
“It all goes back to manning,” he said. “We don’t have the manning to sustain normal operations, so we’re doing what we can to support the community.”
Like many Garrison services, the Passport, Visa, SOFA ID Card Office has experienced additional strain from servicing a community that has grown from around 12,000 members to around 22,000 in less than five years. By comparison, the entire Garrison Wiesbaden workforce has remained at around 800 employees during the same time.
Passport services are particularly impacted by this growth since the office has gone from having four full-time passport agents to just one over the last year.
To make up for the loss in personnel, Rodriguez has had to certify other employees as passport agents within MPD so they can be pulled from their regular positions to support each rodeo.
Fortunately, the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt was able to provide three agents for the rodeo held in January but can only provide support if their mission allows.
Additionally, Rodriguez explained that unlike most Garrison positions, passport agents are required to meet certain requirements prior to having the authority to issue and renew passports.
“I can’t just have anybody do it,” he said. “For passports, they have to be trained and certified and given a license by the State Department.”
The training is comprised of virtual initial training, followed by a limited in-person training offered at various locations as needed—from Germany to back in the United States, or even as far as Indo-Pacific theater locations like Japan.
Rodriguez said that a new full-time Garrison Wiesbaden agent should begin training in early March.
In order to assist his office in the meantime, Rodriguez has offered this message to the community:
“Be nice to my agents,” he said. “I understand the frustration, but they’re trying to do their job the best they can. They’re human also. They feel the frustration and the pressure also, but what would really help is: look at the expiration date of your passport - six months out is when you need to come in and start applying to get it renewed. Don’t wait until the last minute.”
In addition to the official passport rodeo on March 7, the next tourist passport and SOFA rodeo will be March 14, from 8–11:30 a.m. and 1–3:30 p.m., at Building 1023E and 1023W respectively.
As is the case with all passport and SOFA rodeos, last call to be seen is at 3 p.m.
Applicants must print the electronic payment confirmation they receive via email after successfully paying the fee because it will be included in the package MPD sends to the U.S. Consulate in Frankfurt. No other payment will be accepted for the Passport Rodeo.
Review the checklist for all rodeos by visiting the Installation Passport/Visa/SOFA Office webpage: https://home.army.mil/wiesbaden/about/Garrison/directorate-human-resources/passportvisa
| Date Taken: | 02.28.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.28.2025 09:58 |
| Story ID: | 491748 |
| Location: | WIESBADEN, HESSEN, DE |
| Web Views: | 26 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Garrison Wiesbaden Passport Rodeos prove successful despite staffing challenges, by Stephen Perez, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
