I hope this isn’t considered a hijack, but I have a question. Can’t the govt cancel someone’s passport without taking physical possession of it?
It’s been a few years due to Covid, but I could swear that last I travelled internationally, TSA used a barcode scanner on my passport at the checkpoint. Couldn’t they just deny passage right there?
I would think so. Technology has progressed far beyond the days when an exacto knife, some glue, and a knack for forgery could produce a fake passport that would pass muster.
I don’t travel now but used to be in the category of “extra pages not enough, need at least two orders of extra pages” to make my passport last.
For that and other boring aspects of my personal experience that I won’t bother with here, the whole 3 passports claim makes total sense to me - as others have said, expired, regular, and diplomatic seems likely. Of course, only someone like Trump would say they took THREE passports. The expired one doesn’t count at all. I have several, and they are simply souvenirs of past adventures (not to mention photos of myself with fewer wrinkles and less grey hair).
ETA: All my passports (the current one and the expired ones that precede it that I’ve kept) are in my home safe. That’s more of a fire safety measure than a theft prevention measure, as a determined thief could easily steal the safe and drill into it later.
I have five - four expired and one current. The expired ones are in a filing cabinet and the current one is in a cupboard with other foreign travel stuff like EHIC and some Euros.
When we in the UK renew a passport, they return the expired one with a corner chopped off to make it unusable. Do other countries do anything similar?
In a locked firebox tucked away. Mostly, like others, so I don’t mis-place it. I don’t use it very often.
Why do some of you keep expired passports?
mmm
I used to keep them because they were full of fun stampings from my travels. Can’t remember the last time I had a passport actually stamped; now they just scan them. Maybe if I travelled outside North America and Europe more they’d still do it.
Like most, I keep mine in a secure but accessible location because we occasionally need them not just for travel but for some bureaucratic reason or another. Keeping them elsewhere would be a pain.
When I met my gf for some reason this question arose. I told her it was at my bank in my safe deposit box. She jokingly asked what if I needed to flee the country and the bank was closed.
The next morning I stopped at the bank and got my passport. Currently, two expired and one current along with three of my gf’s passports are in our “important stuff drawer”.
Mine is in a draw in a console table in the entryway. I have a few expired ones scattered around the house.
In my work bag that I don’t take to work, it just hangs on the side of the couch we don’t use.
Yes, i think my excited ones have a hike drilled in the corner.
It’s a souvenir.
(actually, i have several expired passports. They are a lot smaller than other souvenirs.)
Actually, i once used an expired passport to enter Bermuda. Once upon a time, they were good for travel to Bermuda, Canada, and a few other places. My real passport was away getting a visa to visit Russia when i wanted to enter Bermuda. They asked me a few extra questions at immigration, probably because my passport was expired, but everything went fine.
We keep ours in a fire safe, along with our expired/cancelled diplomatic passports.
Sock drawer.
Bear in mind that I’ve put so many important objects and documents in there that by this point, “sock drawer” is mostly a misnomer. It’s more a drawer filled with paperwork and tchotchkes covered by a thin layer of socks
That sounds like they’re living their best lives.
Nowadays even rather poor countries have computer systems to track entries and exits. So yes, physical possession of the book means little; it’s what their computer thinks about its validity that matters.
Someone mentioned TSA upthread. There is no obligation to show TSA a passport to travel internationally. You just have to show them something that’s good enough ID. For most Americans a drivers’ license or equivalent ID Card is plenty*. They’re about security and whether you are who you say you are, not whether your documents support international travel. Having said that, one of their requirements is that the document you present not be expired / invalid. They can certainly read the expiration date off the document itself. I don’t know whether their scanner is connected to DOS’s computers for a real-time revocation check, but I doubt it.
The US airline’s systems are connected that way, and if you present a revoked US passport to the gate agent during check-in for an international flight, we’ll know before departure time that we’re required to leave you behind. I don’t know how well that works for folks w non-US passports either leaving or entering the US.
* Not going to bring up the whole US “Real ID” fiasco.
It’s kind of a moot point, isn’t it? Border control at the country of arrival will need it. You might be able to fly internationally without a passport, but you won’t be able to go anywhere.
But you can fly domestically in the US with no passport at all. I think that was his point.
We have a small fire safe that we keep passports (current and expired) and a few other important documents. Not sure why we keep the expired passports in the safe, but we are keeping them because they’re nice to have to look at the fun and interesting stamps.
Late ETA: @Alessan a couple posts ago.
Agreed.
But I was responding to what I read as that poster’s implication that TSA was part of the border checking process. Which they are not. That’s all I meant.
And in fact despite your implication, you can’t fly internationally without a passport (or equivalent). The whole reason the airlines check your passport before boarding is to prevent a useless journey to the other country only to be turned back at that country’s immigration checkpoint. The various governments have cleverly roped the airlines into being unpaid enforcement agents by the simple expedient of requiring the airlines to pay to return any immigration-ineligible passenger back to their country of origin. Plus a fine. So we’re quite motivated to ensure we don’t carry you someplace you can’t get into.
I guess i shouldn’t go back and edit that ..
Expired/hole, of course.
In a little basket where I put my cards, cash and keys every evening. My kids live in another country, so I need to be able to grab it at all times in case of emergency.
I have a letter sized manila folder in my top dresser drawer labeled, “Important Documents”, and that’s exactly what it contains. I keep it there.