Two months after mailing my passport renewal application to the State Department, I received my brand spanking new passport in the mail last Saturday.
If you’re a terrorist or intent on forging your way into the US, stop reading now!
I was surprised to find little had changed with the design. My photo was apparently scanned, then printed on the page (vs. laminating it down), and plastered with a watermark so you can barely see my baby blue eyes. Countless border agents worldwide are going to lose out as a result!
I get a new passport number with the renewal. I remember a Brit in Guatemala last year pointed out to me, as I took out my passport to sign into a hostel, not knowing one’s passport number by heart brands a novice backpacker! What-ever. You should see the retarded number of username/password combinations I have to recall each day at work – let alone personal bank accounts and web site stuff. It’s ridiculous.
I noticed there were no microchips implanted in it, unless it is so thin I don’t know it’s there. And it still seemed a few pages too short. I hope to fill the sucker up in 2008!
Apparently, I was a tad lucky, as there are people waiting a lot longer than me due to the recent changes in passport policies affecting Americans going to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
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Categories: Planning
13 Comments
yeah watch me reel off both my 30+ digit aussie + uk passport numbers… NOT! :) shesh. how many times you been asked for it that you remember it.. If i dont use it once a week I tend not to remember it..
yeah watch me reel off both my 30+ digit aussie + uk passport numbers… NOT! :) shesh. how many times you been asked for it that you remember it.. If i dont use it once a week I tend not to remember it..
2 months for passport renewal? That’s a pretty long wait. Then again, your country’s making big changes in your passport. The only change I got in my passport renewal 2 years ago was a stamp that says “Not valid for travel to Iraq”
Go Philippines!
2 months for passport renewal? That’s a pretty long wait. Then again, your country’s making big changes in your passport. The only change I got in my passport renewal 2 years ago was a stamp that says “Not valid for travel to Iraq”
Go Philippines!
I was just thinking that I might apply for a second passport in case I want to go to Israel on my RTW trip. I should do it now for my 2009 trip! At least it means that more Americans are travelling…sort of.
I’m home today watching travel TV…Globe Trekker on Russia! It made me think of your post about getting sick of travel TV. My whole blockbuster queue is full of travel of Globe Trekker.
BTW, I’m from WA and I definately vote for OR and WA for for the end of your trip.
Cassie –
Would your second passport be from the US too? If so, I didn’t know that was possible. I know some countries won’t admit people who have evidence of visiting Isreal.
A friend of mine just got back from a trip to CA and OR, and she really loved the laid back lifestyle in OR. I’m definitely looking forward to exploring the west coast!
I’ve been reading about the problem passport problem for a few days and it seems that its a little known solution, and yeah, they’d both be US.
http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/regional/regional_1175.html
Its the second cntl F “Israel” find.
I’ve been told that people have gotten a second one, but we’ll see. I’ve also been told that if you fly in and out that its easier not to get your passport stamped.
I might just save myself the trouble and put that at the end of my trip…I’m not really good at lying, so if a border guard asked me if I had been to Israel, even if it was months later I might crack. ;)
This probably sounds cheesy, but I’m from Spokane, across the state, and live in Seattle, and every time I make the journey across the state I think about how much I love WA. Its really laid back here…I dated a guy from NJ once and it was kind of a culture shock to realize how formal his family was.
Let me know when you get closer and I’ll help you pick some spots.
I’m living vicariously through you right now. ;)
I was just thinking that I might apply for a second passport in case I want to go to Israel on my RTW trip. I should do it now for my 2009 trip! At least it means that more Americans are travelling…sort of.
I’m home today watching travel TV…Globe Trekker on Russia! It made me think of your post about getting sick of travel TV. My whole blockbuster queue is full of travel of Globe Trekker.
BTW, I’m from WA and I definately vote for OR and WA for for the end of your trip.
Cassie –
Would your second passport be from the US too? If so, I didn’t know that was possible. I know some countries won’t admit people who have evidence of visiting Isreal.
A friend of mine just got back from a trip to CA and OR, and she really loved the laid back lifestyle in OR. I’m definitely looking forward to exploring the west coast!
I’ve been reading about the problem passport problem for a few days and it seems that its a little known solution, and yeah, they’d both be US.
http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/regional/regional_1175.html
Its the second cntl F “Israel” find.
I’ve been told that people have gotten a second one, but we’ll see. I’ve also been told that if you fly in and out that its easier not to get your passport stamped.
I might just save myself the trouble and put that at the end of my trip…I’m not really good at lying, so if a border guard asked me if I had been to Israel, even if it was months later I might crack. ;)
This probably sounds cheesy, but I’m from Spokane, across the state, and live in Seattle, and every time I make the journey across the state I think about how much I love WA. Its really laid back here…I dated a guy from NJ once and it was kind of a culture shock to realize how formal his family was.
Let me know when you get closer and I’ll help you pick some spots.
I’m living vicariously through you right now. ;)
yeah watch me reel off both my 30+ digit aussie + uk passport numbers… NOT! :) shesh. how many times you been asked for it that you remember it.. If i dont use it once a week I tend not to remember it..