warakorn

Customs usually dont check passports. They usually just collect the customs declaration stub.
But immigration will want to see a passport.

fumje

Yes, they do want the physical passport. In fact, in my experience, that is all they want; the mobile has already sent all its information to them.

Often1

A US citizen cannot lawfully be denied entry to the US. The passport simply serves as definitive proof of citizenship. Rather than playing games with GE which may cause issues, simply report that you have lost your passport and you will be carted off to secondary where attempts will be made to verify your identity and citizenship.

Note that it is entirely possible that if the passport was dropped on the jetbridge, it may have been found and reported by DL to CBP and thus already cancelled and noted as lost or stolen.

For most people who lead fairly plugged in lives, this verification process should not take long. For some people, it can be a hassle.

For the benefit of others, a US passport is a valuable document. It can be sold on the black market for $thousands. While being admitted to the US is more timely, making certain that you have reported it (even if others have) is important. Somebody else using your passport to commit a crime can cause endless difficulties and great expense for you.

As others note, while photocopies are not definitive proof of a passport, everyone should have 2-3 high-quality paper copies of their passport in their documents folder and also have a similarly high-quality scan of the relevant pages as a PDF. I also obtained a Passport Card the last time I renewed my passport. An extra $25 gives me a simple extra piece of ID. While you can't fly or be admitted via air using the card, it is as good a backup piece of ID one can get.

davetravels

I placed an online order for in-store pickup at Target last week, which requires photo ID for pickup. I was fishing around in my credit card wallet for my driver's license, and stumbled across my passport card first, and, voilŕ, they handed me my order!

freQ

YadiMolina

My wife's passport had some problem where the machine would not recognize it after scanning. We entered her data manually, which was successful, and she completed the process of photos and fingerprints and received a slip. This happened on a few occasions without repercussions. Of course she presented her passport and slip to the officer at GE. (After several trips to the GE office we finally got things rectified and it scans properly now.)

jeet

Different case. You wife has passport on her, its just the machine can't read it.
This is different then not having your passport on you but still trying to use GE kiosk by entering passport information. As poster noted this can have serious implications

Randyk47

CALlegacy

It is notable that the color of the cover of a US passport is a dead on match for the color of the carpeting used by Delta. The document if dropped in and around one's seat might be nearly impossible to see until one gets a good flashlight and can move around to look. You might guess how I know. Also the Passport Card, as mentioned is a good backup for ID.

GUWonder

Tedgrrrr

Hi sorry, didn't mean to blow you all off. I'm told the process took all of 10 minutes and simply involved the agent filing out a form. Apparently the agent joked that he was lucky that this happened at Salt Lake City, because agents at other airports would not have been as understanding.

Loren Pechtel

Interesting idea on the pants. I wouldn't have thought of hiking pants as travel gear but that's because I tend to avoid putting much in mine--anything there is going to move back and forth with your legs every step and if it's not real light it gets annoying. However, for flying you're not walking that much and a bunch of zippered pockets would be nice.

FYI: In looking them up I saw REI mentioned so I decided to see if my local store had them. Nope--but I do find some on clearance. Larger sizes only, though.

cafeconleche

They have a lot of travel-clothing with multiple pockets, so you might consider uppers like shirts and jackets with pockets if you don't like the pants. ScottEVest is one, or Baubax. There is also an endless supply of kickstarters...

turnleftbrighteyes

Snort. My passport was taken from me on a flight to JFK (from Europe) and if anything, everyone was much nicer and much more helpful than I usually experience there. A bit of typing and chit chat and I was on my way. The only form of picture ID that I had at that point was my New York Public Library research card (back when the silver ACCESS cards for the research libraries had photos.)

Of the things I worry about when traveling, losing my passport once I'm on the plane home ranks very low on the list.

(Sorry that I just noticed this thread otherwise I would have responded earlier with a reassuring comment based on direct experience.)

Loren Pechtel

I was saying that it wouldn't be good for hiking, not that it wouldn't be good for travel.

As it is I use a ScottEVest jacket for travel.