Passports
I had a brief moment of panic last night, knowing my passport was going to expire soon, but not being able to remember exactly when. Luckily, it’s not till April 08.
It’s crazy that I’ve had my current passport for nearly 10 years now. The picture in it is a decade old. Old Passport and I have had some good adventures together. I like looking through my stamps and remembering the places I’ve been. The only downside is that the stamps can be deceptive; ever since the EU came about, they only stamp it at your first point of EU entry/exit. Therefore, because I’ve often connected in Amsterdam, a person looking at my passport might assume I’ve spent a lot of time there, when I’ve never set foot outside Schiphol airport. Same with Dusseldorf and some other perfectly interesting places that have just never been on my itinerary.
If I recall correctly, you have to send in your old passport in order to get your new one. I think the last time I renewed, though, they sent back the old one with a hole punched in it or some other invalidating mechanism. That was 10 years ago and pre-9/11, though, so I may be remembering wrong or maybe things have changed. I do hope I get this one back. Ah, the memories. I’ll have to take a look at it and try to recreate all the trips it’s been on.
In my experience, passport stamping depends on the country, the method of transit (you always get a stamp at airports) and sometimes the whim of the border guard. Hopping through the former communist countries (most of whom now belong to the EU but don’t use the euro) I got stamped almost every time.
-Stubble
Renew your passport now so you don’t have to wait forever. I guess I’m lucky that mine won’t expire until 2011.
I just got my passport renewed, and yes, they returned my old passport with a couple of holes punched in it but otherwise intact. They appear to have gotten through the backlog, because mine only took about two weeks with regular processing. You’ll note that the new passports are electronic and have an RFID chip embedded in them. Actually the new passports are pretty slick compared to the older ones. The printing is much more sophisticated — there are illustrations on every page and they no longer include your actual photo under a laminate layer — it’s just printed in full color on the ID page.
On a non-passport related note, its too bad for you that our dollar is of equal value to yours. Goodness knows for years and years we were almost worth half the US dollar.
(and of course you know a dollar is a loonie, and the 2 dollar coin is a toonie 🙂 )
I renewed my passport in the last two years and they did indeed send my old passport back with a hole in it.
You probably get a lot of crap for your name when the fourth month of the year rolls around. Is that so?
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