rw2841

I think the airlines are caught in the middle of a dilema overwhich the have no control. Foreign bureaucrats are no different from our bureaucrats in that there is a minority who love to exercise the power they have to make life inconvenient. America's popularity in the rest of the world is currently the lowest I've seen in over 40 years of frequent internatinal travel, and finding something to slap an American with, like a passport "problem", is very inviting to a small minded bureaucrat. It doesn't matter that the affected traveler has absolutely nothing to do with the policies that have made our nation so unpopular.

All of my dual nationality friends and colleagues now travel on the passport of their other nationality, without exception.

thaliajen

Good points and good ideas. My new passport arrived yesterday- it would've arrived Friday but they left a paper stating that I HAD to sign for it. The mail person told me that they won't leave a passport in a mailbox in my area. Don't know why, it's a suburb in MI, a very nice area, but she said their post office (MY post office) insists upon signatures for passports. I don't know if it is only expedited passports, but it sure made it more difficult to get! I appreciate them looking out for me, but it was a pain to have to stay home all day to sign for it.

Anyway, my NEW passport is much nicer than the one issued to me in 2005. The page that is scanned is not the front cover, so if the cover is bent, it won't affect the scanning. They DID put a notation on the information page saying that they should go to page 24. THERE it says it was a replacement for a damaged passport. I hope this doesn't cause me any troubles.

I was just thinking how nice it would be if we could all just have a card with a photo and a magnetic strip. Passports are bulky and odd sized, and a credit-card sized passport would make things easier. I know they have something like that but I think it is for people who drive through Canada and Mexico a lot.

One thing I don't remember from my other passports is that they sent me the 2nd photo -you submit two with the form and one goes in your passport. Don't they need the 2nd photo to be filed somewhere? It was stapled inside the cover of my old passport, which now has punch-holes in it. I think it's great to get the old one back, but why the 2nd photo? I don't even like the new photo and now it is stapled to my old passport as well as in my new one.

Looking at my old passport though, I just don't see what all the fuss was about. Everything is legible and it's not that bad. I spent a lot of money to get a new one and have it expedited, and wonder if I even need have bothered. That said, I do thank the CO gate agent who finally told me what the problem was with the unscanable inside cover. I do wonder why none of the governement agents ever said anything to me, but I guess it doesn't matter now. I'll get one of those passport covers and be done with it. I just hope this one lasts more than 2 and a half years!

sfogate

I believe that in the "old" days, your photo was attached to your application and then filed. Now a days I think that your picture is scanned and stored electronically, therefore the need to file your current picture is no longer required.

dme

My passport has seen some good times- fallen in the ocean, molded, has rust from staples, been stepped on, sat on, driven on. None of this was intentional. I had to have additional visa pages added so it also held together by State dept issued packing tape. It is peeling on the edges and the ink is not a robust as it once was but it still works. Even better- it is the old style passport. I travel internationally a lot. The US immigration officials usually look at it with disain but I have never had a problem with it and never been lectured. I have not had an issue with it overseas. Maybe I have been lucky.

Section 107

(sorry for the formatting but I dont know how to quote multiple posts in a message - maybe someone can PM me and explain)


"All of my dual nationality friends and colleagues now travel on the passport of their other nationality, without exception."

Having two passports can be an extremely very useful tactic, but one must be warned that the passport (citizenship) used to enter a country is how the person will be recognized in any incident in which citizenship is an issue. Ex. A person with dual Mexican and American citizenship enters Saudi Arabia on a Mexican passport so she can later enter Israel on the US Passport. She gets arrested for "talking to a man not her relative" or "wearing inappropriate clothing" by the Shari'a police. She will get NO assistance from the US State Dept because she is used the Mexican passport. Similarly, if she used the Mexican passport to enter Mexico and got arrested for being a car accident (criminal offense in Mexico) the US State Dept will offer no assistance.

"I was just thinking how nice it would be if we could all just have a card
with a photo and a magnetic strip. Passports are bulky and odd sized, and a credit-card sized passport would make things easier. I know they have something like that but I think it is for people who drive through Canada and Mexico a lot."

well, where would you put the visa stamps? or the visas that are actually issued on pieces of paper? not every country has the technology or infrastructure to do electronic passports and the other countries arent willing to pay for them to have them. With a hard copy passport local law enforcement can simply read the passport to determine a persons status and send the person on their way.

Not every podunk township or borough in America has the ability to outfit every patrol car with the technology to read the encrypted data on the passport. Imagine the delays when a tourist stopped in Mayberry must be detained until Deputy Fife can get to Raleigh to scan the card....?

Now thats the US - imagine trying that in Kenya, Guatemala, or Kazakhstan?


"If a country can deny you entrance because your passport will expire in less than 6 months, well what's the sense of that. Why isn't it good until the expiration date? And what happens on the expiration date... do you suddenly become something or somebody different from the day before it expired?"

"Visas" are predicated on the visitor staying for limited duration. If the passport expires before the end of the official length of time a visitor is allowed to stay in country - visitor will (might) not be allowed to enter any other country. The traveler will be returned to the country he departed from and he becomes a burden of the country he was visiting.

Example: My passport expires in 4 months. I go to Mexico and legally stay for 6 months. The US will not allow me to re-enter the US on the expired passport. I will be denied entry and sent back to Mexico. Since I have no valid passport I am now not allowed to re-enter Mexico and I live like Tom Hanks in Int'l Transit lounges for months. However, Mexico will now have to deal with me administratively if not actually put me in jail (and pay for me).

Put another way - a drivers license is issued when you ostensibly demonstrate you know how to safey and responsibly operate a car. Just because it expires doesnt mean you suddenly forget how to drive, right? But I'd like to see the smile on the cops face when you say "I dont have a license officer but I drive very well....."

Citizenship and travel documents are VERY complicated and highly technical areas of law - -fortunately and unfortunately there is no single arbiter of the rules.

DaDaDan

In this instance she would be required to enter Mexico under her Mexican passport. If you have dual citizenship, you must enter a country of citizenship with that country's passport. In fact, even if she entered (illegally) under her US passport and was later discovered to also hold Mexican citizenship, Mexican authorities would almost certainly deny any requests to meet with US consular officials and deny US consular officials any requests to offer assistance to her.

sfogate

It has been over 15 years since I worked in the Customs and Immigration Halls but I do remember that an American returned to the USA from Australia on an expired US passport. He was not denied entry but he and CO were fined. I asked the Immigration Officer if he would have been barred from entering the US and he replied that we do not turn refuse our own citizens entry back into the country.

chasbondy

I'm all for retaliation in that case. We should demand the same for all S.Africa vacationers, businessmen and diplomats. What's good for the goose, is good for the gander, or South African

wolfie_cr

then they are going to require US visitors for a visa so that what's good for the goose is good for the gander

Section 107

thats true, my example was "worst case" and I probably should have said so. It would be highly unlikely that a country would deny its citizen entry just because the travel document was expired. But the delays, paperwork and expenses are certain and make a for a quite unpleasant time.