I’ll probably apply for one when the crowds at the Passport Office settle down a bit, just so I can make short-notice plans to go south of the border without being concerned about it. I’m not going NEAR the passport office before the crowds settle down though!
I’ll be applying for mine soon, since I want to visit my BF this spring. My old one expired a few years ago, though I never needed it in the first place–the one time I travelled on it I was underage and with my parents.
I got one when I was in high school for a class trip to Europe. It had been expired for about 20 years when I got it renewed last year for a trip to the Galápagos Islands. So now I’m set for 9 years or so.
At Casaflodnak, the passports outnumber the people 
I have 3: tourist, dip, and official Gov’t passports. Can’t believe I haven’t lost one yet.
I have two passports (one personal, one official). Can’t catch me unawares!
I have to travel to Toronto this weekend. My old passport expired on the 19th of this month, so I had to make a special trip down to Miami to get a new passport so I could go up there. Drove 5-6 hours each way, enduring idiots and long lines, got home almost midnight. Then a day or so later found out they are offering a reprieve. I hate the government.
Welcome to Toronto! (Note: Floridians may fiond it somewhat chilly.) Perhaps a MiniDope is in order?
I should warn you: expect changes at Pearson Airport if you are staying across the evening of the 29th of January. Terminal 2 at the airport is closing permanently at 11:59 PM on January 29th, and all its operations are going to the new wing of Terminal 1. So if you fly into Terminal 2, and leave after the 29th, you will leave from Terminal 1.
Well, I guess I’ll be the first person in this thread to say no, I don’t have a passport yet. To my great sadness, the farthest I’ve traveled beyond U.S. borders thus far in life has been to Baja Mexico on a cruise (2005) and to Windsor, Canada (last summer, just to say I’d been to Canada).
However, I’m hoping to make it to Europe during perhaps the spring of next year, so I will probably start the passport procedure sometime this year.
I got my passport 2 years ago when I went to California for vacation. I didn’t need it to travel but I felt it would be prudent and might expedite things at Customs.
I had not realized mine had expired ( time flies). Fortunately I looked at it the other day and noticed the date. When I went to get a new picture, the woman said, “What is going on? Everybody and their brother is leaving the country!”
Then at the post office, there was only window that would do the passports. There were about 10 of us in that line. When the line got so long, an employee informed everyone they couldn’t do anymore passports that day. So I do think word is out now that passports are needed for places they weren’t before.
I am going to Barbados next month. The longest threads on the Barbados trip message boards are about how Australians and New Zealanders now need to have a visa to go there. Something about the Cricket World Cup being held there means there will be lots of Island hopping. So to get into one country, you have to be able to get into all countries and since Trinidad and Tobago require a visa for Australians, they need one just to get to Barbados now.
And when searching hotels in Barbados, most every reservation page had a big warning that passports are now needed. I would have thought they were needed before, but I guess this is something new.
Well, I certainly have a passport, seeing as I live in Thailand. I even get it renewed through the embassy here. But I’m curious about the Mexico reference. Decades ago, I rode the train from Juarez (across from El Paso) to Mexico City and back, and Mexico insisted on seeing a passport. I’d always been told Americans didn’t need one for Mexico, but it seems that that was just for cross-border day trips and the like. Going deep into the country, it seemed to be required.
This also reminds me of the first time time I took my Thai wife to Mexico. We were staying at the Motel 6 in Anaheim, California, and drove down to San Diego with the intention of checking out Tijuana across the border. She had her passport, but no visa for Mexico. No problem for Americans, but what about Thai citizens? The Mexican Embassy in Bangkok had assured us it would be no problem. I THINK we double-checked with a Mexican consulate in the US. Some American official or another somewhere had assured us coming back would be no problem.
But as anyone who has walked into Tijuana from San Diego knows, there are no Mexican border officials there. It’s just this huge turnstile that you walk through, the kind that you cannot turn around and come back through. Not a human soul in sight, Mexican OR American. And there’s this big CLANK sound when you walk through it, like the sound of a jail-cell door closing in the movies; I think they made it loud on purpose, just so you will know: Now you are LOCKED OUT of America; welcome to Mexico!
We had a good afternoon, but my wife was unable really to relax. Whether she could get back into America or not stayed in the back of her mind. Sure, she had a visa to America, but she had already entered the country, then left. Would they let her back in? And if not, how could she stay in Mexico without a proper visa? It didn’t help that I kept promising to write to her if they didn’t let her back in America.
Happily, when time came to return across the border, we found ourselves behind a group of Chinese guys reentering America themselves after a day in Tijuana. The US border officials were friendly and joking with them, so that set my wife at ease. And yes, they let her back in the country again, no problem.
I have had one for years. It went through the washer last year and I have my doubts as to whether or not it will still be accepted. But you can still read all the stamps and all the writing. Probably if I end up needing it I will try to get a replacement.
Didn’t the Shoe Bomber on that airplane get a new passport by claiming his old one had been washed because he’s left it in his jeans pockey? I’d be careful using that excuse. 
I see you’re in Canada. In the US, you can apply at the post office; is Canada not the same?
I’m 33 and just got my first one a couple months ago. My bf renewed his and his kids’ passports a year ago and was jealous that I got the new type with the RFID card in it. We just got 'em all back after sending them to get visas for our China trip.
Yes and no. You can at some but not all . Checking the website myself, the only place near me that takes applications is an actual passport office.
Except for one I lost, I have all the passports I have been issued sitting in my bureau drawer. The first is taller than the others and has a green cover. The picture shows a squealing Candide held firmly in his father’s strong hands. In the signature box is my name in my mother’s hand and the words “by mother.” It makes me a little wistful when I look at it as my parents have both been gone for many years.
Another interesting piece is that it was valid from July 12, 1965, exactly 23 days after I came into the world. Perhaps things worked a little more efficiently back then?
Oh, yes, to alleviate Khadaji’s concerns: my current passport has been in the pool and has been through driving rainstorms and still works properly. The readers used at most entry points are optical and agents may suggest that you get a new passport, but they’ll let you back in. You may get a scornful look for your cavalier attitude towards government property, but that’s about it.