According to Wikipedia, 39% of United States citizens have a passport. Recently I applied for my first–it was in yesterday’s mail. I have no real need for it. This is something I’ve always wanted, even though I do no international travel.
The passport is much smaller than I thought it would be. I was expecting something like a three-hole punched school notebook, not something small enough to fit into my shirt pocket. In any case, it is an impressive document. I have a feeling of awe and majesty.
I may try crossing the Canada/USA border at Eastport, Idaho and return home via Roosville, Montana on September 17, just to try it out.
Pro tip when applying for a passport: wait until the massive herpe on your lip heals before taking the photo lest you be doomed to have it for 10 yrs. Speaking of which, I need to renew my passport.
Gah, I got mine just a while back. The lady taking the pic was having issues with shadows and wanted me to not squint. So I’m staring wide-eyed into nuclear flash, I look like somebody hit me with a cattle prod.
I was surprised how fast it arrived, less than 3 weeks from picture to mailbox and that’s without any expedite fee.
Once you’ve tested your passport out by visiting Canada, why not try something more adventurous? Fly to somewhere like Paris or Tokyo, and spend a few days wandering around a really foreign city.
Mona, Dahling, as Cub Mistress said, welcome to the club Dahling:)
I too have an unused passport. Got it just for the fantastic daydreams that go with having one.
Check that I DID use it as a piece of prime? primary? erm, dang it whats that word for ID that all subsequent ID is based on? Anyway, it was that or birth certificate and since I don’t have an “original state issued certified copy” (my ratty old original certified copy got washing machined right after I got my passport)
A first passport is a rite of passage. The next step in coolness is having to add so many extra pages that it starts looking like a phone book. I did that during one period, but that’s when extra pages were free. Now they charge so much for them that it’s probably better just to get a new passport early.
One of the times I had extra pages added was in Bangkok shortly after 9/11. An Aussie of my acquaintance was horrified Americans could do that. “But … but … but what about terrorism?” he sputtered. I’m not sure how getting extra pages could aid terrorism, but he was genuinely concerned. Aussies at the time had to send their passports to Oz, but I think that changed at some point since then and they can get extra pages now.
Congrats! But watch out for those border crossings coming back into the States. I don’t know why but out of the 3 times I have crossed back into the States from Canada in the past year, two of the border crossings were over 2 hours. Bad luck, maybe.
The kids got new passports and I got mine renewed last year. Since then we’ve been to Ontario, Quebec and British Colombia. The kids really liked Canada and have asked if we can move there if Trump gets elected.
I took my own passport picture. There are websites that help you line everything up, make sure your head is in the right spot, and you can then print it and send it off.
This was a lady that worked at the Post Office, they had a makeshift “photo booth” set up behind some shelves (small town Post Office). I filled out the application, paid the fee, got the pic attached all right there. I just wanted to get done ASAP, the trip I had planned was a couple of months out yet but I didn’t know it would be done so quickly. My birth certificate came back a couple of days later, I think the county charges $42 for a new notarized copy of that.
She had to re-do the pic numerous times, claimed shadows behind my ears were a big deal as it threw the facial recognition software off. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but she said that they had some pics come back because of it.
So thanks for the tip, I don’t know if I’d be any better on the other end of the camera - couldn’t be much worse :eek: <- me in my pic
Now that you mention it, I seem to have more than the average amount of trouble with the facial recognition kiosks when coming back into the US. I’m forced to go talk to a Customs agent about 75% of the time. I’ll have to check my passport for ear shadows
