Do you have a Passport?
 

I was reading an article the other day that many people in the US do not have a passport. As someone who not only lives abroad but travels Internationally, I find it odd to *not* have a passport.

I can understand that the US is a big place and many who live there simply feel no need to travel beyond its vast borders (or cannot afford to... which is more likely the cause).

I got my first Passport back in 1983 when I took a March break trip to Paris with my French teacher. It was a big deal for me at the time as I saw a Passport as a passport to the world (a bit of a romantic view I suppose).

How about you? Do you have a Passport? If not, why not? If you do, when did you get your first one and why?

Well, I'm Canadian, and yes, I have a passport. I'm pretty sure the first one I got was at 15 when I travelled to
England. I say pretty sure, as back then you might have been able to travel on alternate documents.
I know I got one at 22 for sure. I've needed it for travel, both personal and professional.

I got my first passport at 16, when I traveled internationally for the first time, and have had a current one ever since. I wish it had more stamps in it, but I have one....I'm planning on taking a VERY extended vacation next summer after I take the bar exam, so maybe I'll add some stamps then.

I'm a Canadian and I don't have a passport, and I'm in my early thirties.

I can barely afford travel within my province, let alone outside of the country. Though I have been from Toronto to Vancouver area a few times. But even then I didn't bear anywhere near my share of the expenses.

It's not that I don't want to travel; it's that I don't have the resources. Besides, I want to see my own country first. It will be a while before I leave it to see other places.

I had one...but I lost it. :( I only had Portuguese stamps in it, but they were stamps, damn it!

Got one. Haven't used it, yet. Hope to soon!

Yes, I've had one since I was about 25. Prior to that I could simply use my military ID most places I wanted/needed to go. Once I got out of the Navy I had to get one to travel. I have about 9 years left on my second 15 yr passport. My first passport was full of stamps, this one's not so much. Seems like they don't stamp them as much as they use to. Now every where scans them in and you're off.

I'll never stop traveling. Maybe someday when my legs won't hold me up any longer. To me people who don't get out and see the world are missing out big time. But different strokes for different folks I guess.

I use it.... have had one since I was 5.

I feel nekkid without it.

I got my first one at 12, but I only used it once. I'm on my second one, which I have only used once:(. I need to get out of the country more.

I have a passport. It expires in 2010.
It was a bit of a hassle to get my passport - I had to get photographs taken, then stand in line for two hours at a special post office 30 miles out of my way. I can understand why not many Americans would want to deal with the hassle.

yep. needed it twice in the past year :)

I've had a passport for about 30 years so its been renewed a couple times. My current one expires in 2012. I got my first one when I travelled to France back in the '70's.

I don't have a passport -- the police in Beijing have it, so I can get a residence permit. ;)

Back in 2002, I got a passport, but was working my way through school and didn't have time or money to travel. Now, I'm realizing that dream post graduation. It's important to get a different perspective via travel.

I do.... Got it two years ago for a HS trip to England with the chorale... It was amazing.

Don't have one, never needed it, but planning on getting one since I have to go for the photos anyways for my TX CC permit. I'll probably be working overseas within a few years anyways.

I actually have a multipass, for my trip to Floston Paradise.

I'm American and I absolutely have a passport. I'm not out of the country as often as I like, but I feel it's wise to have the option.

I have several. The one I use depends on the country, and the target.

i've had a passport since i was 3

My husband keeps on asking me to get one for me and the kids. I am going to..have been for the last two years..procrastination is a bitch

Yes, I just got it this year for so I could go to Europe. They only stamped us when we got to Holland, not in Germany or Belgium.

You made Coke come out my nose.... The drink, not the powder.

Leelu Dallas, Muli-pass!

Just got mine two weeks ago for a trip to one of the Islands coming up in February. (Can you believe it only took ten days from the date of application? I was shocked!)

I had one years ago when my ex and I spent a couple of weeks in Colombia, but it was well beyond expiration.

If I were in a better position, I'd get 'em for my kids, too.

My wife and I got passports about 15 years ago, thinking we would travel out of the US a bit. We used them a few times since then for vacation travel. I also had to travel to the UK once for work, so my company paid for the renewal of mine.

I seem to have forgotten to reply to the post.

No, I don't have a Passport. I am a simple man from Kentucky. I briefly and not very seriously considered taking a construction job in Iraq which would have required one but then realized if I wanted to get shot at I could walk around my backyard during deer season. I don't think I'll ever need a passport. I'm just not the type of person that needs to go places. I'm happy where I'm at.

I have always had at least one passport since I was about 1 or 2 years old, and have traveled internationally regularly since then. I have had 2 passports since I was 22 and became a dual citizen of Iceland. I could get a 3rd from Lebanon, if I wanted... :D

I can't imagine life without passports. They are hands-down the most important documents in my life, and one of them gets used at least once a year. I don't have a whole lot of stamps though, since I tend to use my Icelandic one when traveling in Europe (Schengen Zone)... but I have stamps from Lebanon and African countries, which is kind of fun. :)

I have two - a Canadian and a British. At least one is always up to date.

had one since i was 2 years old. there wasa period between 1997 and 2007 where i didn´t have a valid one but now i have 2 (eu citizenship comes in VERY handy...)

I got mine for a trip to Europe a couple years ago. Similar to you, they only stamped be in Belgium and England, not France.

Yes it does, but don't remind my husband of that fact, now that we're abandoning our efforts to get him an EEA passport. :)
-----Added 30/10/2008 at 07 : 14 : 58-----
That's because of the Schengen Zone. England is not in Schengen, but France and Belgium are. Once you enter Schengen, you don't get any stamps until you exit the zone--no matter how many borders you cross.

I've had a passport since I was a baby and my parents took me back to Wales to visit family when I was just a year old.

The one I have now has only been used once since I got it renewed - visiting Wales and England when I was 17.

meh, will he need an eea passport in the us anyway?

Not IN the US (he'll get an American passport in 3 years), but it would be helpful for when he travels to Europe in the next few years, or most particularly if we ever decide to move back to Europe and live in France, etc. But then again, since I have an EEA passport, he should be okay getting permits through me. It will just be a little more paperwork (if it were any more trouble than that, we would have stayed on in Iceland another 2 years).

i guess you could just go through the motions there. but then i´d think it would be only really worth it for the really long term as if you lived in a schengen country then getting around inside europe will not be a problem.

Right. Which we are not even sure we will do. Believe me, if getting my Icelandic passport had required 3.5 years of residence in Iceland (or god forbid, 7 if you're not married to an Icelander!), there is no way in hell that I would have lived here that long. I only got the passport because it was relatively convenient... I was here for 9 months and got it through my father's citizenship.

We've talked about it for a few years. It would make the job application process easier. Thanks to 9/11, in the US you need multiple forms of ID to finish an app, or a passport.

A couple years ago I had let my passport expire and needed to get one quickly for an unexpected business trip to Belgium, which I didn't want to postpone due to their excellent beers. So I went to the U.S. Custom House in downtown Philadelphia where the passport agency is and I had a passport in about 6 hours. I applied, got pics across the street, gave them the paperwork, had lunch and a couple beers, went back and had it in hand. Such expedited service costs more but is available.

American and had one since 2000. Gotta make sure I keep it when it renews because of the border stamps. China and Mongolia are pretty neat. Russia and France not so much.

I used to have one but it's long since expired. I haven't been on vacation anywhere but the cottage (which is really my favorite place to just go and relax) in a long time. Sounds like I'm going to have to get one again soon as some friends are planning a wedding down in Cuba next year sometime and more than likely I'm heading down for it.

Go one at 15 when going on a Caribbean cruise with the family (didn't need one at time, just in case). Got new one this summer before we went to Cabo San Lucas in October.

Interesting, I was under the assumption everybody has one, kinda like driver license. Anyhoo, I got mine back in 2003 or 2004, not sure when. My dad had recently become a citizen and my brother and I were naturalized under him. He figured the family will visit Vietnam someday so it's a good idea to get one in advanced what with the waiting period being so long post 9/11. The only times I used it were when I went to Canada, which was only a 2-hour drive, and to Vietnam back in late 2004/early 2005. I'm planning to travel across Asia when I graduate so lots more a-coming.

I´m on my third one, first one was all used up, second one expired.

I got mine when I was 17. It's due for renewal in 2010. It has a stamp from Schiphol and from the UK; I fondly remember the hot passport agent who gave me the former when I entered the Netherlands. He looked like a model. All of the passport agents looked like models, and the customs guys too. It was a great welcome to the country.

I've used it to travel to Canada since then; it makes getting over the border a lot easier, and since they've decided they're going to require passports to travel to Canada, it's very nice to have. Admittedly, I expect that next time I go to visit Canada that I will have a harder time getting back into the United States than I did getting into Canada; this seems to be the case every time I visit.

i cant NOT post in this thread...

i have lost count the number of stamps ive got in my passport.

ive had mine since i was 19 when i visited the 'motherland' Lebanon 11 years ago now. i got my 2nd passport 2 years ago and im about half way through mine right now. ill be racking up a few more stamps before years end most likely.

im thinking about applying for my lebanese one just for ease of travelling through the middle east (and to get into touristy places for a fraction of the price), but notto use through borders. thats where the aussie passport is 2nd to none.

I'm an American and 30 and I don't have a passport. I don't know that I'll ever leave the country. Not that I wouldn't love to travel, just that I don't see that I'll have the opportunity. There's a lot more of the US I'd love to see as well.

I was on my parents' passports from a couple of months after birth.

I first went abroad from England to France at six months old - the longest I have ever gone without crossing an international border is around 10 months.

To date, I've visited:

France
Germany
Belgium
The Netherlands
Italy
Spain (including the Balearics and the Canaries - which are technically in Africa).
Switzerland
Ireland
all of the UK (including Isle of Man and the Chanel Islands)
Israel
USA
Canada
Malaysia

The ones in bold in the past six months.

Early next year I am expecting to go to Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and maybe Indonesia on business.

I like travelling abroad.

I'm almost due to renew mine - expires in 2010. Funnily enough, my first one had lots of stamps (only country I've been in without a stamp was Canada - we drove up from the US and have nothing to show for it), but my current one does not have any stamps at all :(

Gotta change that.
-----Added 30/10/2008 at 06 : 30 : 49-----
Do you wear it, cod piece style?

i have one. i dont remember when i got it.
i like having it in case it comes time to get outta dodge.
plus i like to travel, but i do it in slow motion. 4 years in france and i don't really know much of the country except paris, around paris and brittany. it's almost like when i get to france i immediately loose a contact and spend the next year creeping around the rug looking for it.

To me a passport is as important as an ID. I don't know when I got my first one but I must've been 9 at the latest (if not younger). Growing up in a small unstable country, I certainly needed to have a way to get out if I wanted. And since I moved away from Lebanon, I've been an expat for a while in separate countries, and I often need to go back home to visit my family or to just go travel...

So yeah, considering my background, it's essential. And I am waiting until I get a better passport, one that allows me to travel without pre-applying for visas, and whatnot... Hopefully in 3 years. All passports are not equal, for sure.

kind of funny you should say that, cause on ships we have a harder time getting back into Canada then we did entering the States.

I have a passport, I've had it for nearly 10 years. It's set to expire in May. It only has one stamp in it, but it has come in useful on several ocassions. I've had expired/out of state driver licenses be denied and the passport worked as a photo ID. I also had a problem at the university I attended because my records were in my maiden name and the person "helping" me was a dumbass and insisted on seeing ID with my maiden name, despite having been married several years. My passport had my maiden name and my amended married name.

I'm a 39 year old American who has never had a passport. I very seldom leave the southeast. Been west of the Mississippi twice. Mostly I do not like to fly.

Wow... great responses from everyone.

Some mentioned having to renew their passports. I am on my third passport, I just renewed my latest and, as I now live abroad, I had to do it at the local consulate. So now the place of issue on my passport no longer says, Toronto. It felt kind of odd to see that.


Hey Daniel... if you make the trip here next year, let me know. I'd be happy to buy you an over-priced Beer. ;)

I remember when I was living in Portugal, having to renew my passport and being on the phone with the Canadian Consulate in Lisbon. They told me that I needed to prove I was a Canadian and when I said that I had a Canadian Passport, they told me that wasn't proof!!! So I had to go to the local British Consulate and pay some Portuguese national consular officer $50 to sign and stamp a certificate "in lieu of guaranteer" which the Canadian Consulate took as proof that I was, in fact, Canadian. What a scam!

I got one 3 years ago. I had traveled to Canada and Mexico by car without one previously.

I'm American and have had one since 3. My parents were always traveling in their younger years and even met when they were both away from their home countries!

Years ago when I first started in film/tv/news production, a friend of mine told me he got sent on tons of emergency trips and plane rides just to bring stuff in an emergency to overseas productions. The only reason he was sent is because he was the only production assistant with a passport.

I'm South African, and I've never had a passport. I'd like to get one, if only to make jumping on a plane to who-knows-where that much more realistic.

I'm also one of the 'explore your own country first' kinda people, even though I haven't done nearly enough of that. I wish I had a job that allowed me to travel more, see more, but also let Mandy come with me. It really isn't the same if you don't have someone there to share it with.

So no international travels for me just yet, but hopefully in the years to come. Luckily, international travelers are coming to S.A. for the FIFA World Cup in 2010 .Then I can be a tourist in my own country. :)

Mine is due to be renewed in January. I got my first one when I was 18 so that I could go on a high school band trip to Holland (1978) so they still stamped them back then. Come to think of it, a few years later, I had stamps and actual postage stamp style visas stuck in my passport for Korea and Sri Lanka. Lately though, I have never had the customs officers give stamps, They just look at it and hand it back.

Hey all you folks talking about getting no stamps etc....have you found that if you directly ask "please stamp my passport" ...especially if you're able to ask even in broken native language, have you found that you can still get it stamped?

i got a 'postage stamp' in yemen for my visa if i recall correctly..or was that jordan. one of them im sure.

the only place i dont get a stamp is in australia and UAE now. everywhere else ive got a stamp.

Betcha didn't know that they give postage stamps in Lebanon, too. ;)

My cousin (Wolfgang) was visiting me from Germany, and had me take him to the USA (across the Thousand Islands Bridge) so that he could get a stamp in his passport. They never stamped it, so we asked, and they still refused. Told us to move along.

Yes.

Why? I'm actually the world's worst travel agent. My test was: "what's your VISA number?". Apparently I passed.
Anyway, as a travel agent - you get certain perks.
- Cheaper flights
- Cheaper hotel bookings
- Cheaper car rentals
- Better Service (sometimes)
- Commissions when you book your spouse's travel arrangements. (yes, my wife is also a travel agent, and she books my travel)
- Every trip is a business trip

Now my 4 month old is getting a passport!
Only problem is he keeps smiling and apparently you're not allowed to smile on those darn passport pictures.

And this? Well this just kicks ass:
http://www.youtube.com/v/5mA3voZUZrk&hl=en&fs=1

Okay, I seriously need to look into becoming a travel agent. Screw this academic crap--that's my calling!!! I just thought that travel agents had gone completely out of style in this day and age.

i didnt actually. im planning a trip to the homeland in the next 12 months at some point. not sure when i will squeeze it in, but i know i will.

as for becoming a travel agent..im not sure id want to become one.

the way i see it, if you love something, then you dont take it as a job.

We might be there at the end of Jan... let us know. :)

Yeah, that's a lesson that I've never learned... I've always studied subjects that I loved, and it's ended up kicking me in the ass every time I've tried to make it into a job. Will be the same when I finish the PhD, which is why I should become a travel agent (no studying needed, just working!). :D I need a job doing something that I just like, not love... hmm.

My last passport has stamps from all over the place: Korea, Hong Kong, Slovenia, Czech Rep., Hungary, Poland (full page Visa), USA, UK, Germany, France, S'pore, Indonesia, etc.

My current one has stamps from The Netherlands, Malaysia, S'pore, Indonesia (full page Visa for every visit)... but then I just got it in March 2008. Give it a few more years.

Charlatan, I also need your job. Either that or a travel agent. Anthropologist is not cutting it in terms of passport stamps at the moment. :)

Not yet...

no passport so far in my life
I have visited:
Ireland
England
Bahrain
Greece
Israel
St. Maarten - Visited twice, second time during the filming of Speed 2
Canary Islands
France, Cannes & Marseilles
New York City once - big, vibrant, and expensive. The sign advertising rates of $400/month just to park your SUV in a lot near Times Square stuck in my head.

might be forgetting somewhere, it has been several years.

I want to elaborate a bit on my response: I don't have a passport and I want to see my own country first.

I lived a quarter of a century before I even left a 500 mile radius of my hometown. My first ever flight placed me well outside of that--I flew from Toronto to Vancouver. I did this on my own to visit Baraka_Gurl, as we had been dating long-distance. It was an astounding experience for this small-town boy who had only recently started living in the big city.

Since that time, I have flown to Vancouver a few times, plus a couple of times to Calgary. Baraka_Gurl and I drove from Vancouver to Toronto when she moved here. I've taken a few road trips to Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City. I visited Watertown and Syracuse, NY, as a kid but don't remember it much. A few years ago, however, a couple of friends and I decided on a whim to drive to Pennsylvania--just because none of us had been to Pennsylvania. We ended up in Fort Erie. Exciting.

This, in a nutshell, describes the extent of my travelling experience. It would further explain why I don't have a passport: I haven't needed one.

There is much of Canada for me yet to see. I want to see the Maritimes and the Great White North. This is a huge place. I suppose if I want to go to New York State in the future, I'll need a passport; I don't know the current rules.

We have actually considered getting passports recently for other travel to the U.S., but it didn't pan out. I imagine it's just a matter of time. I think we'd like to go to the Caribbean. Maybe Cuba. I think we'd like Cuba. We might one day even seek out a destination wedding. I don't know.

Cuba has great wedding packages. Cheap too. So does Dominican Republic and Mexico, but I would tend to avoid Mexico myself.

I'm in my mid thirtys, and finally got a Passport in the summer of 2007. I think the only reason I got one when I did was b/c work required me to travel to foreign countries.