It could be worse at least you didn't screw up your ss card or drivers license like Henry Cho's friend did.Messing up the name on your driver's license
Debating getting a Passport Card
- Thread starter Carmudgeon
- Start date
I don't need or want a passport.
For a while I put off getting one for fear of my employer wanting to send me on a business trip. I had an incentive to not get one.
Foreign trips to strange lands and having the runs for 7 days. Nothing better!
Yep. Coworkers have the stories about their trips. I have nothing against my counterparts in other lands. Just don't want to spend my day on a plane, then week in land where that kind of story is the norm, then another day on a plane, then back to work... Maybe for more pay but at this point in time, no thanks.
It was fun at first. 5 years back and forth from China. Yep NASTY plane ride. Brazil was OK. I mean it was not all bad, learned a fair amount of Chinese for example. Survived weekends by myself, not much English spoken. I never got sick much, but almost every boss that came with, or stopped in for part of the trip, got sick. There is some kind of schadenfreude there.
Last trip double sucked, got home dog tired on Sunday. Walk in Monday, company takeover, laid off. Nice.
On the subject, for China, Passport and visa. Same Brazil and supposed to check in with local police. Never did though.
The online system will generally check for all the little details such as eligibility for online processing. It was a bit frustrating though as I checked on the status and my application status had incomplete information where I was worried that maybe some information needed for the passport was missing in their file. But when I got the passport and passport card, they were both correct. There was something a little funky about the database.
It's not that bad sending it through the mail, other than the typical problems with the USPS. And apparently the online renewal process doesn't allow for expedited passports.
I remember when I got my first passport card, I got it in 2009 as a "renewal" where I sent in my passport that expired in 2011. I did get that back intact. I renewed my passport in 2010 just before the fee increase, and was supposed to submit my passport card with the renewal of the passport book, and the card came back intact. But yeah I've heard of cases where they mistakenly cancelled a passport that had time on it and wasn't being renewed. If you do any kind of renewal and have both, you're supposed to submit both even if you're not renewing that one. And theoretically you can renew passports as often as you want. I could see frequent passport renewals these days where extra pages aren't issued and the maximum size is 58 pages.
I mentioned getting a passport once to an admin at work. This was for a family member. She said our company hired an expediter who could get a same day passport and she could give me their contact info. Not sure how it works though, although I think it's maybe a few hundred dollars on top of the normal passport fees and State Dept expedited fee.
But even with a passport, often doing work in several countries might require a visa, even where one can often enter as a tourist without a visa. I remember possibly visiting Canada on a temporary work assignment (didn't even up happening) but I wasn't sure how that's supposed to be handled. In some countries it doesn't matter as long as someone is paid back home and isn't displacing a potential worker. Canada has a visa for American workers with special expertise that can be obtained on entry, but that can be crazy sometimes with all the rules. It's probably better to get a visa at an embassy/consulate in advance and take care of any deficiencies in the paperwork before the assignment starts.
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigratio...nal-free-trade-agreements/north-american.html
I saw a documentary series where one story was about a Canadian who tried to enter (on a temporary assignment) the US as a skilled draftsman, to help review some of the work he did for use in the US. He had a boatload of papers about his qualifications, but he couldn't convince US Customs and Border Protection that he should get the temporary NAFTA work visa. The thing they kept on asking him is why he needed to do this over an American hired to do it. I guess theoretically he could have lied and just said he was a tourist. But if they searched him and saw all his work documents, that would have set off so many flags. He probably should have tried to get it cleared before he arrived in the US by applying for the visa at a consulate or the US Embassy in Ottawa. I think the big thing is that it might have vaguely been considered "engineering" but I don't think he had a bachelor's degree in an engineering field, which is typically the minimum standard qualification.
As far as getting a passport on short notice goes, I've personally been to the San Francisco Passport Agency for a child passport and we couldn't get an appointment for 3-4 business days, even though appointments are only for "urgent" travel needs. We showed up more or less on time for our appointment, but still needed to wait over an hour. Then the passport wasn't ready for two days, although we asked to pick it up rather than have it mailed. I have no idea what kind of deal commercial passport expediters have with the State Dept where they can come in without an appointment and get passport for clients on the same day.
It is kind of weird how much is going into passports these days. There's passport data sharing these days. It's almost impossible to fake or modify a passport these days and have it accepted. I've heard of photos being inserted, even with newer passports where the photo is printed flat on the info page. They have all these security features. And then even when it comes time to present a passport, they'll pull up the image from the database. Right now the big thing seems to be not modifying a passport, but finding a customer who looks "close enough" to the person on the passport and then maybe using makeup to get as close as possible to the appearance. But that probably isn't going to work with a stolen passport once it's reported as lost/stolen.
And the technology is wild. The original passport card was designed by General Dynamics. Not sure if that's still the case.
The current passport covers are made by Infineon and Thales. I believe both are foreign companies, although these are their American subsidiaries.
And the technology is wild. The original passport card was designed by General Dynamics. Not sure if that's still the case.
The Department of State is pleased to announce the award of a five-year (base year plus four option years) contract (amount not to exceed $99,333,863.00) to General Dynamics Information Technology of Fairfax, Virginia to integrate the production of the new passport card into the Department’s existing passport book processes. The contract calls for the supply of card stock, electronic chips, printers, and software.
The current passport covers are made by Infineon and Thales. I believe both are foreign companies, although these are their American subsidiaries.
The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has awarded a contract for security features, including the chip, software, and packaging, in the U.S. passport. The contract has been awarded to Infineon Technologies Americas Corporation and Thales DIS USA, Inc. and allows for the companies to supply these security solutions for up to ten years. GPO manufactures the U.S. passport—including many of its components—for the Department of State, who then personalizes the book for American travelers, Government officials, and diplomats.
Some local Congressional offices can try to help expedite, but YMMV as far as whether they offer that service to constituents, what their criteria is, and what avenues are available.
GON
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The very first thing a congressional office does when a constituent calls for assistance is to check the constituent's voting record. Vote every election, the congressional office will move your request for assistance to the front of the line. If the constituent doesn't vote or hasn't voted lately, the request for assistance is placed at the end of the line.
Want assistance from a congressional office- make sure to always vote. Doesn't matter who you vote for, just that you did in fact vote.
In Canada, if you have a Nexus card, you can take the fast lane, even if you are flying domestic. Not sure if this an official use or just the good nature of the security people to help clear clogged security lines.
I can't believe all these states that are not in compliance with REAL ID.
It was never a problem in Texas I've had REAL ID for 15 years.
As to answer the passport book or card, I never seen a use for a card, so I have a book.
It was never a problem in Texas I've had REAL ID for 15 years.
As to answer the passport book or card, I never seen a use for a card, so I have a book.
It is official.
Just went to Canada last month with a book based passport from 2 years ago or so, it has the plastic page for the photo and scanning code sort of work like a "card". Canadian side didn't stamp anything just looked at it and gave it back to me. I can see the convenience if I want to keep a smaller "card" in my pocket driving into Canada or Mexico regularly at the last minute notice, but I wouldn't worry about it if I only go in a planned trip (and have to go home to pick up my passport before going to the airport).
I've heard of US citizens wanting a passport stamp when entering Canada. CBSA might do it if one insists on it, but obviously they don't have to since a passport card/NEXUS/SENTRI/enhanced DL-ID is enough at a land or sea crossing.
Machine-readable passports have been around for ages though. The hard plastic for the information page is supposed to make it much harder to fake and/or modify. They've gotten more advanced over the years, where it was previously just a photo glued to the page and then with an embossed seal together. Then the photo laminated into the info page. Then a color photo printed directly into the passport page. It's harder and harder, but I've seen documentaries showing fairly good modified passports where they managed to insert a new photo or just replaced the entire info page with a fake using a new photo.
I think the RFID electronics in newer passports is embedded on the inside of the cover. The cover itself is supposed to be able to block out signals when closed, but at least with US passports it's supposed to be on the inside of the front cover near a corner.
The thing that's supposed to make it much harder to insert a fake photo is international passport photo databases. They'll scan the passport, see a photo come up, and if it doesn't match it's a red flag.
You might be interested in this. Here's a guy who had a real Australian passport, but sounded like he came straight from China. They apparently only had a biographic history of him for two years in Australia, even with a birth certificate that said he was born in Australia in 1979, when they still had jus soli citizenship. He claimed to have been raised in Australia, schooled in Australia, and he had never left Australia until he had obtained this passport. They asked him a bunch of questions about him growing up, such as what schools he went to and what bus company there was where he claimed to have grown up. He claimed that he sounded that way because of living with his parents from China. His grammar was all sorts of wrong, including adding or dropping "the" incorrectly and singular/plural confusion. It's pretty obvious that he had obtained a faked birth certificate and had used that to establish his identity as an adult. Not sure how he got the birth certificate - whether it was a specific forgery or perhaps someone at whatever records authority produced a fake one on real records stock.
If I'm not mistaken one needs a passport to travel outside US and Canada, travel between these two countries is a little simplified so far.
Travelling with 'passport card' may not work too well outside North America.
Travelling with 'passport card' may not work too well outside North America.
A passport card is considered an ID that can be used for surface travel through the US, Other IDs that are compliant and issued in the US are NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST, and enhanced driver licenses/IDs. One is supposed to be able to travel on these throughout most countries among the US, Canada, Mexico, and Carribean nations (not sure about Cuba though) by land or sea. Outside of the US, I'm not sure what other countries have IDs like this that aren't a passport.
I don't think any of us want to go back to traveling with birth certificates though. I used to visit a mostly travel website on various travel problems. One guy was a US citizen and heard that US citizens could go on a closed loop cruise (starting and ending in the US at the same port) with a driver license and his birth certificate. Only he was born in Canada to American parents, but didn't have a US passport. Probably didn't have a Consular Report of Birth Abroad nor a US Certificate of Citizenship He brought along his Canadian birth certificate and was told it wouldn't work and was denied boarding. He needed a US passport, and it was probably going to take a while to get all the proof of needed to get a Certificate of Citizenship or a "passport in lieu" of getting Certificate of Citizenship.
Something that could be really messed up is that Canada still allows adult US citizens to enter Canada with a US birth certificate and a photo ID. But the US doesn't consider those to be valid travel documents any more for entering the US from Canada.
You missed 'outside North America' part.