Holly cow! This is amazing! I just got my new passport!

It's has been only four days since I went down to Los Angeles last Tuesday. Just few seconds ago, the doorbell rang. I wasn't expecting anybody, so it was a surprise to find the a lady from the post office. I immediately recognized the envelope, since I had prepared it the first time I sent all the paperwork by mail (you have to send a prepaid return envelope).

I am totally impressed and amazed! I am so glad and so proud of both the Consulate and the Spanish Government... I thought this was going to take at lease a few weeks. My old passport expired last Wednesday, so, although I wasn't worried because I'm not planning to leave USA soon, it was kind of a weird feeling having my passport expired.

The new passport looks the same as the old one, except for a couple of things:

1. The covers are harder and thicker. They basically don't bend at all.
2. There is a new symbol both in the cover and the ID page. This symbol looks kind of like a credit card, just a rectangle with a circle on the center. Looking on internet, that symbol means the passport has RFID, which would explain the harder covers too, which will prevent the RFID chip from getting bended, I guess.

The RFID symbol: