Have you ever traveled outside of the United States of America? If so, I am sure you own a passport. As a precaution many people photocopy their passport before they travel to a strange destination just incase something were to happen. It is actually recommended that you take a copy with you.

Yesterday I was working on the paperwork for a “change of status” visa for my wife so that she could remain here in the US with me. As many of you know I have been living in Guatemala with her for the past 4 years and it was time for a change. One of the requirements for the Visa is that she must submit a copy of her passport so we went to the nearest copy center which was Staples.

The last time I made a photocopy of her entire passport was in Guatemala, and to save paper the person that was doing the photocopying put two passport pages per one sheet of paper which cut the amount of paper wasted in half.

I walked up to the copy center in Staples and asked one of the employees to photocopy my wife’s passport. In order to save paper I thought they would be able to do it the same way I had it done in Guatemala. The employees refused to copy the passport and told me that it was against Staples policy to photocopy any government issued document, and that if I wanted it photocopied I had to do it myself. They also told me that with those photocopy machines there was no way I could copy the passport the same method that was used in Guatemala. What a waste of paper and money. How is it that a third world country has better copy machines and smarter people using them than the ones here in the United States?

To summarize the Government is asking for a photocopy of a government issued document, and staples will not photocopy it because their employees are  under the impression that it is against the law. How ignorant have we become? What crime is being committed?