Last minute emergency passports no longer welcome in the United States

by Scott Carmichael on

For decades, travelers who were struck by disaster and lost (or forgot) their passport were usually able to have an emergency passport issued by the border police at their airport. I know several people who had their passport stolen a week before a long trip, but were able to have a travel document issued just 2 days before their departure.

The ability to travel to the US on an emergency passport has come to an end due to advances in technology. The United States demands that all passports of visitors arriving on the Visa Waiver Program contain a radio frequency ID chip with their biometric information.

Visitors from non Visa Waiver countries need a visa, and therefor always need a passport, so the ability to travel on an emergency passport never applied to them.

Sadly, nobody has figured out how to embed one of these RFID chips in last minute travel papers, so anyone who loses their passport is now up poop creek without a paddle. Since the US has no intention of creating an exception to their RFID rules, people without a passport will have to go through the process of getting a “real” replacement before they can head towards the United States, and in many cases will have to cancel or delay their travel plans.

The good news is that the United States is the only country that requires an RFID/biometric passport, so travelers heading to other countries will be fine.
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Reminder – customs and immigrations officials do not like jokes

by Scott Carmichael on

Everyone who has entered a foreign country probably knows that the men and women protecting the border are not selected for their sense of humor.

Jokes are best kept for once you reach the other side of the customs and immigration zone.

Sadly, two Dutch travelers were still having too much fun on their vacation when they arrived back home at Amsterdam airport, because they thought it would be a fun prank to switch passports and brighten up the day of the immigration official.

The joke was not appreciated, and the men were apprehended, held for several hours, and forced to pay a 250 Euro fine.

All for a stupid little joke.

So, let that be a reminder, don’t mess with people who don’t appreciate a bit of fun, as it will cost you almost $350!

People with passports are better looking

by Annie Scott on

Is it the chicken or the egg? Is it the passport or the experience of the harrowing passport photo that makes holders of international passports more attractive than the average American?

It’s long been on the books that a shamefully low percentage of Americans have passports — while we don’t have an exact number for today; it’s safe to assume the percentage is still hovering safely under a third or even a quarter.

A recent study has shown that in a blind sampling of Americans rated on a scale from one to ten in attractiveness, those who held international passports were, on average, 37% more attractive than those who had never left the States.

How can this be? Does a trip abroad make one better looking?

Perhaps it’s that people who have seen their passport photos strive to make amends. Perhaps, as some assert, people with passports are more likely to have money, and are thus more likely to be “well-groomed.”

In any case, while those with passports were indeed shown to be more attractive than others, there was no difference in “tendency to be a totally ignorant jerk when in a foreign country.”

100% failure on passport fakes

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Getting a passport, it seems, doesn’t have to be difficult. Even with stricter requirements in this post-9/11 travel world, investigators duped passport and postal service employees four out of four times. In one case, the identity of a dead man became a new identity – likewise a five-year-old boy.

The route from identity fraud to new passport takes fewer than 10 days. In fact, the investigator who used the dead guy’s identity got his passport in four days. Another used forged documents to get a real Washington, D.C. identification card. He parlayed that into a passport … on the same day!

Of course, none of this was unknown to the State Department. On February 26, 2009, the deputy assistant secretary of passport services sent a memo to Passport Services directors across the Untied States – saying that recent erroneous events had prompted the process for issuing passports to be reviewed.

Duh.

The underlying culprit – one of them, at least – may be how passport services officials are evaluated. Currently, volume is key, with a higher rate of passport issuances rewarded.

Visting the US? Remember to register with ESTA before you leave!

by Scott Carmichael on

If you live in one of the countries participating in the US Visa Waiver program, pay attention, as things just got a little more complicated for you.

As of January 12th 2009, all visitors to the US who are eligible for the visa waiver program will have to apply for travel authorization at least 72 hours prior to their trip.

There are 35 countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), and if you have ever come to the US on the VWP, you’ll have probably filled in one of those annoying green forms on your flight here.

Those days are now officially over, and the US Government wants to know who is coming here, before they get on the plane.

Statistics from the Department of Homeland Security claim that 99.6% of all people who apply for travel permission get it granted within seconds, which still leaves a fairly decent amount of people who do not get it, for any number of reasons.

The new authorization system is called ESTA – Electronic System for Travel Authorization. The site is available in 16 different languages. To apply for permission to fly to the US, you enter all your personal information, passport data, and flight numbers. You then get to answer the same questions you probably remember from the VWP form, which are there to determine whether you are a Nazi, drug dealer or other nasty kind of person.
If all works out, and you are not on a terrorist watch list, you’ll receive an authorization number. If the system declines your request, you’ll be required to apply for a regular visa through your local US Consulate or Embassy, which will most certainly take some time, so be sure you don’t wait too long!

Of course, as with all new systems like this, there are going to be some glitches, but the most worrying statistic is that far too many people had not heard of the new rules, and arrive at the airport unprepared. Thankfully, the US government has allowed for a short grace period.

The hardest hit are going to be people without Internet access as there is no offline application process. There will be no terminals at the airport, and people in a VWP country who arrive at the airport without an ESTA authorization number may be denied boarding.

Once you register for ESTA, the authorization is valid for 2 years, or the life of your passport (whichever is shorter). As with all international travel, you will need at least 6 months duration left on your passport if you want authorization.

The official ESTA site can be found here, just make sure you don’t fall for the tricks of paid services like Esta.us, who’ll do “all the hard work” for you, for a mere $249!