SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla.,None — The most popular place to get passports in Seminole County will no longer offer them. WFTV learned Wednesday, after a fight with the federal government, the Seminole County Clerk of Courts is cutting all passport services.
As a result, some people will need to go to Orange County.
WFTV found the Winter Springs post office on the list, but the Lockhart post office in Orlando may be the closest for some now that the clerk's office in Seminole County has stopped accepting the applications because of a dispute with the federal government.
For more than 20 years, the Seminole County Clerk of Courts has been the place to go in Seminole County for accepting passport applications, but that all changed Wednesday. According to the U.S. Department of State, it deactivated the clerk of court from accepting applications, because it was accepting fees for postage it wasn't supposed to and for improperly mailing the applications.
Clerk Maryanne Morse told WFTV, recently one of her employees took an angry phone call from someone in the passport agency office in Miami berating them and accusing them of losing 17 applications. But the clerk says her office has receipts from the post office showing those applications were sent. Morse said she was also told she's not allowed to collect postage from applicants, which she's been doing for more than 20 years.
That change would cost her office $70,000 a year in postage. That's when she decided enough was enough and she claims she pulled the plug on helping the feds accept the applications.
Meanwhile, customers are caught in the middle of the fight. They'll have to travel farther distances to make sure they have the paperwork they need to travel out of the country.
The clerk's office won't face any other kind of sanctions, but it will no longer collect the execution fee it was getting for doing the work.
WFTV
