Canadian authorities seem to be particularly picky about this. I have notarized more Child Travel Certificates (and letters, and other similar documents in which one parent allows the other to travel with their children) than you can imagine.
When my then 13-year-old son applied for a passport in Australia, I had already moved to the US. So, the Australian consulate in NYC rang me up to check that (1) I was really his father, and (2) I was happy about him getting a passport. I was fine with the general principle – after all, if my wife and I had been separated, she could have been taking him off to some foreign country and out of my custody – but some fathers (like me) are very bad at remembering things like their children’s exact birthdays. :smack:
A friend of mine was applying for his 1st passport… after filling out the requisite forms, the Passport “official” asked him “do you swear that everything on this form is true”… to which my friend replied “f*ck yes.”
The Passport official looked surprised and shocked, the paused, then broke into laughter… It turns out he was the only person in 10+ years to ever interpret “swearing” in this manner. I wouldn’t recommend this type of humor when going through customs…
Were they? I suppose, in the past, that’s what caused the change in procedure. I started in 2001 (as a CUSTOMS K9 officer), the policies were in place by then. I have never seen a search, beyond an immediate frisk for weapons, performed within the public areas of the port, ie, where the person being searched can be seen by the traveling public. It’s a big fat no no.
Yeah, I’ve got a sense of humor. Not everyone does. I’d try to put on a good face for the traveling public, but when you’re on hour 14 of a 16 hour double shift in 100 degree heat, it’s hard. When you’ve asked the same questions, seen the same stuff over and over, see how you feel at the end of the day.
I think former INS inspectors are the ones with sticks up their butts. Most Customs people are pretty cool. Now we’re all one agency, we try to get the new guys not to take themselves so seriously.
I know O’Hare airport security is insane. I got the once-over by a TSA dork one time post 9/11 but in was in a curtained off area away from the public. What kind of “strip search” was being conducted on those students… like removal of jackets and shoes and being patted/wanded down? If so, that’s not too bad. But if you mean they had to drop their trou, including boxers/undies, well that means their butts and/or privates would’ve been visible to everyone within viewing range, and that would be a major lawsuit (even back then).
@kayaker is probably on his second passport since he started this thread!
An old thread, but it’s interesting to see how things have changed and how they have stayed the same.
Some countries take immigration far more seriously than others. We have travelled quite a bit around Europe and the most serious checks we have encountered have been in St Petersburgh and Heathrow.
The Russian visit was on a cruise, and most countries (including the UK) seem to take a pretty relaxed attitude to cruise passengers. The Russians (and bear in mind that this was over ten years ago) scrutinised every passport thoroughly and there were a number of armed police? standing around glaring at us.
The lack of humour advice equally applies to Heathrow. This is one of the few places in the UK where you will regularly see armed police, and they really take their job seriously. Try telling the customs inspector that your violin case contains a tommy gun, and you may find yourself face down on the floor with a number of H&K MP5s pointing in your direction.
When the customs person asks you if you packed the case yourself, it’s best to say yes. Tell them that your Mum/wife/boyfriend packed it for you and you may find that they will want to make a thorough check.
Here’s a sort of related case. It took him a couple of years to get completely cleared. The UK powers that be do not take kindly to jokes about terrorism:
This is the “famous” example:
I am, of course, referring to the unfortunate American who, as a citizen of Chicago, joked to [Heathrow] airport check-in staff that he had a gun in his violin case. He even showed the woman in question the contents of his violin case (a violin, of course), but, despite this, she still called the police, who arrested him, held him for 24 hours (causing him to miss his flight), and had him banned from all future flights with that airline and a number of others.
Yes! In addition I recently helped my gf renew hers. It is at the “approved, being printed” stage. We are using expedited service and yet it still is taking awhile. She doesn’t need it until January 2024, but it’s still a bit scary.
I am 56 and had a passport for 55 years. Over the years I have misplaced FIVE passports. The “powers to be” do not like that. I travel frequently and internationally, Russia , Cuba, Bora Bora etc… I applied for a new passport last year. I asked to be expedited. My name and SS# must have had red flags everywhere. I had tons of hoops to jump through. They were particularly interested to know if I had any foreign affiliations. I am independent stable financially so a younger retiree. I had to explain over and over that I had no good excuse. They simply seemed to have been thrown away. I’m happy they look into sketchy scenarios and wasn’t offended. Just embarrassed and so happy they issued one. Losing 5 passports is unacceptable, even though I didn’t lose a few recently. This was one gone every few years. I am hanging tight to this one.
Wow. I used to keep mine in my safe deposit box at my bank. My gf once jokingly asked what I’d do if I had to flee the country immediately. I realized she was kidding, but I retrieved it the next morning and have kept it at home ever since.
Our passports (old and current) are kept in a drawer along with our COVID cards.
Passport Canada was a mess during Covid, but I just sent my daughter’s first adult passport application - it’s treated as a new passport, not a renewal - in by courier and the new one took under 3 weeks without an expedited request.
Nowadays in the UK, even small babies have to have a passport of their own. When our two were small, we sent my wife’s passport in to have them added and it came back with the two names handwritten on.
This led to a problem in Turkey. We were staying in a holiday apartment that belonged to a Turkish friend. On Sunday, we were clearing up after breakfast when there was a knock on the door. Two men in suits, carrying briefcases accompanied by a policeman insisted on coming in. None of them spoke English and none of us spoke Turkish, so it took a while before it dawned on me that this was the census that I had seen mentioned on TV the evening before.
The problem was that they wanted to see all our passports and could not understand that the two names, which anyone could have added, were officially our children. Since they spoke no English and we spoke no Turkish, it took a bit of pointing, shrugging and arm waving before they had a discussion among themselves, and finally decided that they had a lot to do and didn’t want to waste any more time with us.
I read later that this was the last census done this way in Turkey. Everyone was supposed to stay at home all day, although there was some dispensation for tourists in hotels. I guess that they were confused because we were in a private apartment.
Oh, Canada! That’s impressive. Even with expedited service, my gf’s application for renewal wasn’t touched for two weeks.
I grew a beard during COVID, my passport shows me clean-shaven, and US or Canadian customs have not hassled me about that.
A friend of my wife got a special call from Canadian passport authorities, they wanted further proof that the one son was actually hers. (Other son, no problem). Her husband’s family was Turkish, and apparenlly one son appeared somewhat darker than either of them.
I have my old British passport from when I was about 6 months old, over 60 years ago. I doubt after 5 or 10 years anyone would have matched the picture to me.
We are lucky to have the NAFTA agreement (and update) in place, it means unlike the rest of the world, Canadians don’t have to fill out electronic preclearance or visas to enter the USA (or vice versa) for tourist reasons. But it’s a long time from the days before 9/11 when a birth certificate or driver’s license (no picture, computer printed form) was sufficient to cross the border.
My granddaughter and her father (my son) visited us last August and she decided while she was here to apply for a Canadian passport. She was born in the US, but registered with the Canadian consulate and had a citizenship card with an infant picture on it. She made an appointment the next day, went to the office, asked for it to be delivered to her address in Chicago and, about two weeks later she got it.
When I applied for my first US passport, there was a problem that the name on my birth certificate was not the name I had used literally all my life, from my first registration in kindergarten on. I was asked to provide a notarized statement signed by two people who knew me under both names. Fortunately, both parents were still alive. But they were the only two in the entire world to fit that description. About when I was born, my father was out of work and decided to start using (without undergoing formal change of name) the new name so a less Jewish sounding one.
That was required only for my first passport.
Do infants need passports too?
Yes, in almost all cases. US/Canadian and vice versa land travel is permitted with just a brith certificate but air travel always needs a passport now.
I dont know if this will ease your mind at all, but I recently applied for a US passport on October 2nd. First-time application and didn’t request expedited service. It arrived last Saturday, 26 days later.