Your Passport

Not much in it. Two older passports were more interesting but:

1. Lost the first one in New York

2. Boiled the other one to smithereens in a washing machine in Portugal, trying to do a wash while still drunk from the night before

I've just got my third passport. Wow that makes me feel old. Haven't used it yet, it remains pristine for the time being. Happily to change in January. The other two have lots of stamps in them though.

Pretty new-ish with the electronic chip in it which means only lining up for two minutes in Melbourne compared to oh, fucking hours in LA. Not much except for US and New Zealand stamps. My old one was better with some cool EU stamps.

Mine is coming to the end of its life.

From the front:

Green Virgin security dot (cover)
stray staple from somewhere
Japan customs sheet (stapled)
Japan
Malaysia
Hong Kong
US A2 (expired) and shitload of A2 stamps
another staple
Sri Lanka
Barbados
Thailand
Samui
some Thai handwriting for about half a page
yet another staple
Goa
Big Full Page India Visa
US A2 (valid) and a shitload of A2 stamps
just one more staple
Cambodia
Big Full Page Cambodia Visa
Canada
Jordan (including a laminated postage stamp and giant CONTACT POLICE STATION WITHIN 14 DAYS stamp)
Pile of Virgin security stickers

business or pleasure?

Both. Thanks for asking.

a pleasure doing business

The only stamps I have are from Barbados.

I was promised an Albanian one but it didn't materialise. Fucking bastards.

some stamps from US and Ukraine

UK 2x, Holland, Canada on the latest.

Lost one in Glasgow years ago and it was confirmed by US immigration on the last trip that I will be asked for the circumstances of that loss and my mother's maiden name for THE REST OF MY LIFE whenever I re-enter the US.

Mine only has exit and entry stamps for the UK and is about to expire, which means I went almost 10 years ago now blimey. Only OS trip Ive done :( I'll get to the US some day soon.

I accidentally left my passport in my pant when I came back from Amsterdam and it went through the washer and dryer. It's pretty rumpled up, the front cover is trying to pull away from the photo page. Would a customs agent accept my explanation that it went through the laundry, or would they suspect me of trying to fuck with it? Should I get another before I travel out of the country again?

yes they'd most likely accept your explanation. yes you should get another

(this has happened to friends and customs let it slide but made it *very* clear that they needed to get a new one asap)

I had put off renewing mine and then heard all the tales of woe about how long it was taking. I finally sent it off with the hope I'd have it back sometime in April so we could go to Canada in May, and it came back in about 2 weeks.

Rock, if you had one of the newer rfid ones, the chip would be destroyed by the washer + heat, so they'd want you to get a replacement.

My photo looks something like Glenn Campbell's mugshot. Plus I walked around with it on rainy and humid days, without any proper protection, and the photo has since become dotted with inkspots.

It's never gone through the wash, but it still looks ragged enough that it would probably behoove me to get a new one before my next encounter with an especially conscientious customs agent.

I don't think this has a chip. It's a year from expiring anyway, might as well get a new one.

I take modest comfort though in knowing that I'm not the only one sporting a less-than pristine specimen.

Until the day comes when I ultimately embark upon my future career as hash-smuggler, it's not a particularly huge concern of mine.

i have two, which means no stamps

IE on the way in to EU countries: short line, no stamp
US on the way back: short line, no stamp

...except i do have a Sealand stamp in my US passport :D

it looks water-damaged (from sweat, i think), the picture is old as hell (high school, long hair, goatee), and there are no stamps even though i've been to switzerland and italy a couple of times each.

I wish more countries would stamp passports. Especially if they had interesting stamps. I've travelled quite a bit (though sadly not for a while as I've got lazy) but I only have two or three stamps in mine and they're all boring unremarkable immigration ones.

ireland has a nice big stamp

the best is when you get visas, tho

HURRAH!!!!!

You know how whatever it is you are looking for is always in the most *obvious* place possible?

I've been looking for my lost passport for SIX MONTHS.

Today while tipping out my handbag to take it and wash it, I opened the inner zipper pocket I never open coz all I ever keep in there is condoms and when was the last time *I* needed a condom - and THERE was my passport.

ha, always a great feeling to find something you thought long lost

I wish I could find my passport ;_;

Nice one. Do you have to halt a replacement process now, or were you holding out?

It's true. I remember once getting in a right state because I couldn't find my passport. I was on the phone to one of my brothers imploring him almost to the point of tears to turn the house upside down to find my passport because it HAD to be there. As it turns out, the jacket that hung on the bannister, next to which I was making the phone call, had my passport in its inner pocket.

Once I wasn't so lucky and couldn't find it at all, so ended up travelling to Italy on my brother's passport. No one batted an eyelid, even though my brothers are seven years younger than me, apart from the Italian passport control fella on the way back.

'Ees YOU?' he said increduously.

'Huh YEAH' I said, raising my eyebrows and rolling my eyes slightly to imply the great stupidity of anyone who could possibly suspect someone of travelling on a passport other than their own.

He waved me through.

£77 to renew this thing kmt kmt kmt

plus £8.17 "post office handling charge" KMFT

my passport just expired

my unexpired US visa is in the old passport, i think i now have to carry both old and new passport when i go to the states? paying £77 for that KMFFFTTTTT

to get a renewal u just need to send the old one in but i want to keep it but getting a new one from scratch is a pain in the ass waaa

i think they're meant to send the old one back. i've become v attached to the various stamps and visas in there, don't want a blank slate

#firstworldproblems

its tough

just sent away for a renewal last night, 80 quid for ten years isn't bad tbh

oh shit they do send the old one back phew!

Oh crap this reminds me I have to finish my application to renew my German one. It's this big dumb process and I need to get some original forms and some things notarized and it all has to be taken to the embassy in person. I have half of the stuff they need already submitted but I need to get the other half done now. At least this one will be good or 10 years. My old one was only good for 5 because I was under 25 when I got it or something weird like that.

im sure thatll come in handy

At this point it's mostly good for getting to use shorter customs lines when traveling but that's certainly something.

so weird how DL pictures usually suck, but I can't think of a bad pp picture I've seen.

u get to choose yr passport pic, where at the dmv they just take it w/a super sucky camera and youre stuck

i worked at photolab where we took passport pictures and people were always asking for reshoots

The one I took for this one was horrible. I thought I looked like a serial killer but then the lady at the embassy said something about how it was a great picture and I should be in hollywood and I couldn't tell if she was mocking me or not. I felt like The Griswolds in European Vacation when the French concierge makes fun of all their pictures.

Mine recently expired. I suppose I have to get a new picture? It says I can renew through the mail and my old passport picture is accurate enough!

Pretty sure you have to get new pics, sorry

general rule of thumb: whatever option costs money is the option that Immigration will recommend

Recently renewed my passport. The previous one contained stamps from just one trip to Ireland in 2000.

The passport before that one expired after a single use in 1981. On that trip I flew to London as the cheapest possible way to cross the ocean, after which I took a bus from London to Athens. This meant I got to cross a lot of borders and so it contained many stamps from countries I 'visited' for a few hours en route.

£77 to renew this thing kmt kmt kmt

before i did the conversion i was boggling at how inexpensive a uk passport is

but otm

heh last summer I got pages added to my passport. did it about three weeks after a new policy was implemented that charged $77 USD for the privilege. before that, it was free. fuckers

I would like a red passport

http://repeatingislands.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/passport.jpg?w=500

the real question is why did i wait so long to renew my passport

everyone waits so long to renew their passport. you are not alone <3

this is probably true. otoh i have left this about as long as i could before i made it impossible to actually go on the trip that i have booked. despite the fact that i work about ten minutes from the consulate and have had a completed application sitting in my desk drawer for like a month oh well baring any extraordinary circumstances i should have my emergency passport tomorrow

it is annoying that it takes so gd long to get a non-emergency passport my bf got his in like two weeks w/o any rush stupid canadians

having it is the main thing, don't beat yourself up too much

trip-wise, where are you going?

Just got a new UK passport, I rather like the pastoral scenes and weather symbols. Very practical temperature conversion scale in the gutter margin as well.

I had my UK first adult passport interview today, quite odd. It felt like a mix between a conversation with someone who finds you inexplicably interesting and psychoanalysis. (Maybe that's also what psychoanalysis feels like.) Is this new? Whenever I mention it to people they're surprised that it's a thing.

Argh. I have to renew my (Canadian) passport. Apparently, they'll let me back in with an expired one, but getting back into the Land of the Free™ will be a challenge. It'll be my first time renewing it whilst outside of Canada. Anyone have experience with this?

Idk how hard canada is, but renewing my nz passport while in the US was way easier than expected (except I wanted to change it to my married name but that was gonna make it 10x harder).

Well, the biggest issue for me is if I can still claim my place in Canada as being my place of residence. Think I'll give the Canadian consulate a ring.