Gotta get me a passport -

Myanmar immigrations officer with my passport

A passport, we all need one if traveling outside the USA. I remember  a few years ago, okay many years ago, showing up at Jamaican immigrations, my girlfriend  asking about what  ID I planned on using as proof of my citizenship. Quick thinking on my part had me fishing out my driver’s license just as we reached immigrations control. Meanwhile, she pulled  out a voter's registration card, a certified copy of her birth certificate, Mary Kay frequent buyers card (Mary kay card, what!) and ultimately her driver’s license as my new best friend Red Stripe I waited. 

Spin the world up to date  and the girlfriend was on the right track as now a days you need most of the documentation she brought to apply for a passport, Mary Kay card not required. A passport in reality is a, condensed, certified personal identification folder containing the stuff girlfriend brought for our trip to Jamaica, less the Mary Kay card, documenting your name, birthdate, gender, a photo, plus a record of your travels, along with containing immigration stamps verifying entry and exit dates of the countries you visited.   

Unlike our Jamaican trip of old, now a days you need  a passport with information certified by the stuff girlfriend brought to Jamaica.  Now, unlike days of old, before the rocking 70’s when visiting neighboring countries like Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean a driver's license did the trick. A passport is required to get you out of the USA as well as back in, let alone foreign countries.

So what do you think, metaphorically speaking, passports grow on trees, if so the government is our tree and if we nurture it with money,  worked it with dealing with red tape and our effort we get one of those little blue books  (passports).   The money  $110.00 for what is called normal processing, 4 – 6 weeks, but normal can take 10 weeks or more. Although, for an additional $60.00 you can get your application expedited to 2 -3 weeks because the tree loves the extra nourishment and will bear fruit quicker.  Though, according to the “(fort Lauderdale) Sun Sentinel”  the government in recent years is behind in it's processing due to the 2009 requirement to have a passport for Canada and Mexico travel and the old improving economy excuse. They also wrote September through December are slow for the government's processing centers, so more timely response times are possible during that period.

In order to apply for a passport the money part and waiting is the easiest .  The application part is not so easy as we are talking a DD form, original and duplicates copies of documentation, locating and applying in person at a Passport  Agency.  I’ll stop here and insert this link by the State Department Bureau of Consular affairs                       http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/first-time.html

A passport - needed to get out of the USA and to get back in, sort of like the notes your mom wrote (actually the neighbor Lonnie using the pen name of mom) to get you out of school and back in. However, once you have a passport, no more permissions are required visit the world except visa's, there is  always something, isn't there. Coming is a visa guide for asia to get on your way with the confidence of a true world traveler.

It's a big world outside the USA, all it needs is you..

                                                                                         

Thanks for stopping by   Doug