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Just when I thought every traveler understood the concept of having a passport in hand the powers that be hand down this little edict: If your passport in being processed you can go to their handy website and print out a form that says it is in process and you can travel with that. *sigh* What this actually means is that you can re-enter the US from Mexico and Canada with this document. To enter Canada and Mexico you still need your birth certificate and photo ID. So this new edict only helps the people who are getting renewals, not the people getting new passports. I can’t tell you how many arguments I’ve had this week so far with people about this. Mostly from people who want to cruise to Alaska and look it up to see that they don’t need a passport for entry by cruise. Technically, yes, but most of the cruise lines are requiring them anyways, just in case they have to fly a boat load of people home from Canada. The kicker is that we live so close to the border that most people already know they need their birth certificate for Canada - why do they give me a hard time about Mexico and the Caribbean islands requiring the same documents?
The last time the passport office was this “helpful” they pushed back the start date from Jan 1st to the 8th, then the 23rd - so I had a bunch of people mad at me that they had to pay the extra to expedite a passport that they didn’t “need”.
I swear, in my next career, I hope never to hear the word “passport” ever again. Even if it is “passport to savings” or some such.
The last time the passport office was this “helpful” they pushed back the start date from Jan 1st to the 8th, then the 23rd - so I had a bunch of people mad at me that they had to pay the extra to expedite a passport that they didn’t “need”.
I swear, in my next career, I hope never to hear the word “passport” ever again. Even if it is “passport to savings” or some such.