# Where do people keep their passports? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 16, 2022, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725 "2022-08-16T01:13:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/1 "2022-08-16T01:13:19Z")
I’ve never had a passport, so I’ve never had to find a place to put one. I suspect I’d put it in my underwear drawer. Now Trump is saying that three of his are missing, after a search of his basement and rooms, and I’d like to imagine telling him "have you looked in your other . . ". And after that I’ve got nothin’. Where do people keep passports? ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/2 "2022-08-16T01:47:07Z")
I keep mine in a locked fire-proof box in my locked gun safe with all of my other important documents. I’m not worried about someone stealing it as much as I am worried about sticking it in a drawer and forgetting where I put it. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/3 "2022-08-16T01:50:30Z")
In my locked business file cabinet. ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/4 "2022-08-16T01:54:25Z")
Why does he have three? Ours are kept in a fireproof lockbox in a filing cabinet in the basement. I really need to replace the Beware of Leopard sign. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/5 "2022-08-16T01:56:09Z")
> [@Reeses\_Monkey](#): > > Why does he have three? That’s what I wondered. Tho when I was on active duty, I had a personal passport and an official gummint passport (mine was blue, the other was red.) We keep our passports in the file folders with our other important papers - like our birth certificates, our DD214s, and, um, other stuff. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/6 "2022-08-16T01:56:35Z")
I came here to say, at the bottom of my underwear drawer. This, despite the fact that a convicted burglar once told me that nearly everyone hides their valuables in either the bedroom or the kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/7 "2022-08-16T01:57:30Z")
I keep mine in my desk drawer. Apparently he has one expired one, his regular one, and his diplomatic one which he shouldn’t have anymore. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/8 "2022-08-16T02:18:04Z")
Right now – it’s in the secretary’s desk in the dining room. In times past, it’s usually been in some drawer in the house or in my pocket (my passports get quite beat-up.) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/9 "2022-08-16T02:26:08Z")
Since I use mine on every workday, it’s in the right breast pocket of my work shirt. Which is hanging up right now, ready for immediate use. When I get home from a trip, I set up a clean shirt and move the passport from my then-dirty shirt to the clean one. Same thing happens at the end of every workday on the road. Disassemble today’s shirt and assemble tomorrow’s. Which assembly includes the passport. And which passport includes my actual original COVID shot record since at various times in the recent past many countries wanted to see it and some still do today. Once I retire the clean ready-to-go shirt will be a thing of the past and I’ll need a better place for my passport. Depending on how often we travel, that may well be in my nightstand in the same place as occasional-wear jewelry, old shot records, and miscellaneous pocket tidbits. If it turns out we don’t go overseas much, it’ll eventually migrate to the vital papers file in the filing cabinet along with our marriage licenses, car titles, etc. I’ve never been big on worrying about fires, floods, or burglaries. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/10 "2022-08-16T02:33:52Z")
I keep mine, with several other “lifetime documents” (birth certif, DD-214, etc) in a fireproof bag lockedin a fire resistant gun safe. I 'm not so worried about theft, as I am about the fire threat 'round these parts. Tripler Been a helluva year for Northern NM. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/11 "2022-08-16T02:44:05Z")
In my travel purse in the chest in the I have my dad’s and grandfather’s passports. Both are deceased. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/12 "2022-08-16T02:49:24Z")
I have 3 passports\*, plus their expired versions which all sit together in a ziplock bag in a cupboard 200km away from where I am now. I should probably take better care of them. \* Zimbabwe, South Africa, British ETA: I, having been born in 1976, also have a passport, long expired, for a country which itself is long expired: Rhodesia. And yes, it is in that same ziplock bag. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/13 "2022-08-16T02:50:02Z")
> [@Reeses\_Monkey](#): > > Why does he have three? I don’t think there is anything nefarious there. Regular, expired, and government position. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/14 "2022-08-16T02:54:52Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > Apparently he has one expired one, his regular one, and his diplomatic one which he shouldn’t have anymore. Formerly Presidents are entitled to diplomatic passport as a courtesy. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/15 "2022-08-16T03:35:07Z")
I keep mine in a drawer in the extra bureau in my bedroom. That one drawer has all my travel stuff (passports, leftover foreign currency, travel chargers, phone mount for rental cars, plug adapters, subway cards for cities I’ve taken the subway in…) and the rest of the bureau has overflow clothing. T shirts i rarely wear, underwear i bought in bulk and will cycle in when the current stuff wears out, some costume items i rarely wear … No, it’s neither fireproof nor burglar-proof. But it’s convenient for finding when i need to pack for travel. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/16 "2022-08-16T03:35:29Z")
It’s in my daily book bag. Old habit. Used to occasionally have the need to get on a plane straight from work on very little notice. No longer 'cause covid, but old habits… ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/17 "2022-08-16T03:47:31Z")
Thanks for the answers, everyone. There are a range of places. Some, like files and fire boxes could have been searched, possibly. I think I’m going to go with, they’re in her other purse, though. Even though no one said purse. Just because it amuses me. > [@Reeses\_Monkey](#): > > I really need to replace the Beware of Leopard sign. Nice. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/18 "2022-08-16T03:48:14Z")
After a few scares where I did the not uncommon thing of putting my passport in an unusual, unforgettable spot only to forget a couple months later, I just always have it in my laptop bag. My current bag has a semi-secret pocket that closes with a magnet and it stays in there in a little case with my COVID vaccination cards. Since I take that bag everywhere when I travel, the passport’s always there and ready to go. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/19 "2022-08-16T03:50:18Z")
I keep mine at Trump’s house. Barring that, I keep them in a drawer under my computer monitor along with other family documents you don’t want to have to tear the house apart for when you need them (birth cert’s, Covid cards, etc) ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2022, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725/20 "2022-08-16T05:00:29Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Where do people keep passports? Well I keep mine in… Wait a second. No, FBI, I’m not falling for that one. Get a search warrant and find it yerself. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-people-keep-their-passports/969725.md?page=2)