Well, let me tell you somethin’ about this Jamaican passport thing. My neighbor, she got herself one of them, and it got me thinkin’. She said it was easy-peasy. Now, I ain’t no spring chicken, but I figure if she can do it, maybe I can too. This whole internet thing is a mystery, but they say you can do it all online now. That’s what everyone keeps yapping about.
So, you wanna buy Jamaican passport, huh? First, you gotta have a computer. And not just any computer, one that works good. Then you need that internet. You see, the world these day, everything you need to do is on the internet. If you don’t have the internet, you can’t do anything. And some thing called a web browser, between 9 and 11, whatever that means. I seen my neighbor’s grandson messin’ with it, clickin’ around and whatnot. Looked complicated to me, but he’s young, he knows these things.
They say there’s different ways to get this passport. One way is on that computer, online, they call it. But only if you’re a grown-up, and you already had one of them passports before. They call that “renew.” Like gettin’ a new one of somethin’ you already had. They say it is easy, you don’t have to spend too much time. But you see, for me, I never know anything about computer. So, this way is not suitable for me. It’s like talkin’ a different language, this whole computer thing. The young people they talk about these things all day long, but they never tell me what is that.

And you gotta fill out some papers, too. Lots of papers, it seems like. Your name, where you live, all that stuff. And you need some other papers, too. They call them “documents”. It is something to prove who you are. I don’t know what documents I have. I think I got some papers stuffed in a drawer somewhere. But who knows where anything is in this house anymore.
Now, if you’re tryin’ to get a new passport, ’cause you used up all the pages in your old one, you gotta send in that old one, too. It is a must. If you don’t send it, they won’t give you a new one. Makes sense, I guess. Can’t just be handin’ out passports all willy-nilly. They say that you need to send your old one with the new one. It is a must. I heard someone said that.
They say it takes a while to get this passport. Not quick, like goin’ to the store and buyin’ a loaf of bread. They say it takes weeks. Maybe 4 weeks, maybe 6 weeks. You gotta be patient, I guess. Nothin’ happens fast these days, except maybe gossip. That spreads like wildfire.
Oh, and there’s a fee, of course. Nothin’ in this world is free, you know. You gotta pay to get that passport. I don’t know how much, but I bet it ain’t cheap. It’s always money, money, money. Everything needs money. Back in my day, we didn’t need so much money.
If you’re one of them folks who live overseas, they say it takes even longer. And they don’t do that fast service for you. Only for the people here. I don’t know why, but that’s what they say. I have a friend, he went to USA. But if he want to buy a Jamaican passport, he needs to wait for a longer time.
And if you are a young one, not a grown-up, it’s a whole different thing. You can’t do it online. You gotta do it the old way, with papers and whatnot. I think it is very troublesome.
- Gotta have a computer and internet.
- Gotta have some “web browser” thing.
- Gotta fill out papers.
- Gotta send in your old passport if you’re just gettin’ a new one.
- Gotta wait a long time.
- Gotta pay money.
So, yeah, that’s what I know about gettin’ a Jamaican passport. It ain’t as easy as pie, but it ain’t impossible either. Just gotta have some patience, some money, and know your way around that darn computer. If you ain’t got all that, well, you might be outta luck. If you want to renew Jamaican passport in USA, you need to wait for a long time.
I heard there is an app, they say it is called ONE JN Passport App. It is a new thing. The young people like to use it. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it can make things easy. If you want to use it, you can have a try. But for me, I don’t understand.
This whole thing is a lot to think about. But if you really need that Jamaican passport renewal, you gotta do what you gotta do. Just be prepared for a bit of a wait, and make sure you got all your ducks in a row before you start. And if you see my neighbor, tell her I said hello. She’s the one who got me thinkin’ about all this passport business in the first place.