Uh oh.

[rivka]

In IM conversation with eck, he mentioned that his passport was about to expire, and suddenly I realized that I had had mine forever and maybe I should...

Shit. My passport expired 12 APR/AVR 02.

I'm flying to Canada on Wednesday.

I've found a couple of U.S. government websites here and here suggesting that an expired passport is considered valid proof of US citizenship. On the other hand, this airline website explicitly states that a US citizen can no longer travel between the US and Canada on an expired passport. Ordinarily, I'd trust the US State Department over Alaska Airlines; on the other hand, I can't exactly afford to be sanguinely confident that I'll be allowed entry and re-entry.

For $225 a private company promises to get me a passport renewal in 24 hours. The official Washington DC Passport Agency says they provide service for people travelling in less than 14 days, by appointment only, Monday through Friday, but they don't say how long it takes or how much it costs.

I e-mailed my mother to see if she still has an official copy of my birth certificate. I have a hazy, and horrible, memory that she may have sent it to me once before, and that it's maybe supposed to be in my care. I hope I'm wrong, because if she can express-mail me my birth certificate that solution will definitely be simplest, cheapest, and most obviously acceptable to the participating governments.

You'd think my expired passport would be just as valid as my birth certificate. It's an official US document that clearly lists my place of birth as "Ohio, USA," and it has to be harder to forge than a flimsy little pictureless slip of paper stamped with the Cuyahoga County seal. If it weren't for that airline website, I'd feel perfectly confident.

Argh.

Update: Yay, mom. She has my birth certificate, and she's sending it today.

Comments

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Do you really need a passport to go to Canada? All you used to need was proof of residence in the US - a driver's license or state ID. We have a realtively open border ... or used to, anyway.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Do you really need a passport to go to Canada? All you used to need was proof of residence in the US - a driver's license or state ID. We have a realtively open border ... or used to, anyway.

Since September 11th, they've apparently started enforcing entry requirements much more strictly. Especially for people who are flying. Or so I've heard.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

last time i flew to see james, i totally forgot my passport. it didn't occur to me that i'd need it. so i got in and back out with a drivers license and a stern lecture on both ends. however, that was early last summer, i believe.

i know that passport or dl+birth certificate are the combinations they look for. the one i live with got into canada for apc in ottawa with his hospital birth certificate with the leetle footprints, not a certified official one, but again, that was a few years ago.

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

serene (http://www.livejournal.com/users/serenejournal/) got turned back from the womboink in Vancouver despite much pleading, because she didn't have documents.

-J

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

while the border was wide open before 9/11, it has always been a requirement that they could deny somebody from the US entry if the person didn't have two forms of ID with them -- one for proof of citizenship, and one for photographic proof of identity. a driver's license qualifies only for the second, a birth certificate (or naturalization papers) only for the first, a valid (unexpired) passport qualifies for both.

yes, they used to be incredibly relaxed about it, and IMO they haven't actually tightened up a whole lot, but it's now less likely that you can just cross with a DL. especially when flying; the paramour has crossed several times by plane since 9/11 and got checked and rechecked a heck of a lot more intensely than i, who crossed by car.

-piranha

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

You do if you're flying. And that's not just since September 11th; that's always been true. I've seen people turned away for not having the appropriate documents, both before and after last fall. But a birth certificate should do Rivka just fine.

-J

[geminigirl]

My friend hoopycat crosses the border between NY and Canada regularly. In fact, he's there now. Would it be helpful if I asked him what he usually takes with him crossing the border? I'll probably chat with him sometime Sunday or Monday at the latest, but could e-mail him in the meantime.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Would it be helpful if I asked him what he usually takes with him crossing the border?

Thanks, but I doubt that it would help much - unless your friend customarily crosses with an expired passport, which seems unlikely. Most people cross with either their birth certificate or their passport - I know what the customary things to bring are. I need to know whether a specific piece of non-standard proof of citizenship will be acceptable, and that's not necessarily something the average border crosser will know about.

In any case, at this point I'm mostly wanting to get official opinions - something I can refer to as evidence if I'm held up at the border.

[kalikanzara.livejournal.com]

All I know is that I've been searched three times now (in a car) post Sep 11, and I never used to be looked at much. Then again, I was wearing a hat, and I know Erik now...

[elisem.livejournal.com]

I poked around that web site a little, and found out that passport application (for the quick sort) is $35 plus the cost of overnight delivery. So theoretically, if you could get an appointment for Monday, you could have it Tuesday....


Here's where I found that info:
http://travel.state.gov/passport_expedite.html

[elisem.livejournal.com]

And they have an automated appointment line, too, so you could call, oh, any moment, theoretically. From the website:



* WASHINGTON Passport Agency
1111 19th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20524

Hours: 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., local time, M-F, excluding Federal holidays
Automated Appointment Number: (202) 647-0518



(What's funny to me is that other people's paperwork is easy for me to untangle, but mine daunts the heck out of me. Go figure.)

[redbird]

So, if you need some untangled, ask one of us. Other people's problems are usually easier.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

It's actually (I discovered from calling the automated line) $40 for renewal plus $35 for expediting plus the fee for overnight delivery... and it doesn't say that your passport will be ready overnight, it just says that when your passport is ready they'll mail it to you overnight. They might indeed have next-day service at official passport agencies, but they didn't really say so - all the official passport sites say that an expedited passport "usually arrives within 14 days," and it's only the private, expensive expediting service that guarantee 24 hours.

But! This is all moot because my lovely mother writes,

We are express mailing your birth certificate this AM and I think we can handle the associated expenses. I am wondering if
over the weekend if priority mail might be just as good, but will use
express unless postal clerk says that is senseless.

Yay, mom! I am saved.

[elusis.livejournal.com]

Ugh. :(

True story: reservations in Toronto for a July 4 weekend getaway. We're *on the bridge* between the US and Canada when I ask the boi (who is not yet a conditional permanent resident thanks to the slowness of the Buffalo INS office) to pull out his "parole" paperwork. Without this paperwork, the US considers him to have abandoned his application for residency if he steps foot across the border and can deny him re-entry for months or years, never mind that we're married and the paperwork is pending on their end and we're just waiting.

And he pulls out the paperwork, and sees that his parole expired the week before.

Much hasty begging of a nice Canadian border guard to please NOT process us through and let us go back NOW ensues. We got many pissy lectures from the US folks (like we didn't get the seriousness already!) and turn around and drive the three hours back to Syracuse, terrified and chastened.

Another true story - train back from Canada got stopped for over two hours because a woman of Indian descent, who was a Canadian citizen, had bought a one-way ticket to stay with her sister in New York until she had her baby, and she didn't have anything more than a driver's license to prove her Canadian citizenship, and she was a student and thus not currently employed. Because, you know, every brown-skinned person crossing into the US is probably just trying to stay here illegally.

And both of these were years before Sept. 11.

I'm sorry, telling you scary stories may not help. They're things that have stayed with me and scared me. :-/

Get help from the US passport service for the 14-days-or-less thing if you can. Or call the records office at the city/county where you were born and see if they can fax or express mail you something. (Indiana is a fucker about it - they take forever and have no expidited process IIRC). Barring that, take the expired passport plus driver's license plus a letter from your employer on letterhead, dated plus some bank statements plus your last tax return plus your social security card plus your voters registration card. The sheer volume of the above may make the difference, plus prove that you reside in the US, have accounts in the US, pay taxes in the US, vote in the US, and work in the US.

Best of luck. Running into these kinds of snafus sucks, I know.µ

[redbird]

Unless you're flying Alaska, ignore them--ask the airline you're going to be on.

The other thing is that it's usually easier to get into Canada than back here: your worst-case scenario is that you'll wind up doing your renewal through a US embassy or consulate in Canada. The most likely is that you'll get through with no trouble.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Unless you're flying Alaska, ignore them--ask the airline you're going to be on.

*nod* This morning I was planning to call my airline, but instead I've been reprieved of the whole mess and worry: my mother does have my birth certificate, and she's express mailing it this morning.

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reminder! My passport expires in October; I'd better start the renewal process.

The first time I flew to Canada (as opposed to bussed), I didn't know about the requirement for a passport or birth certificate. I got turned away at the gate and had to go up to my parents to get my birth certificate. They airline kindly honored my ticket the next day.

Re:

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reminder! My passport expires in October; I'd better start the renewal process.

Start it now, because they're raising the renewal fee August 19th.

The first time I flew to Canada (as opposed to bussed), I didn't know about the requirement for a passport or birth certificate. I got turned away at the gate and had to go up to my parents to get my birth certificate. They airline kindly honored my ticket the next day.

Wow, how terrible. Especially given that, when you drive to Canada - at least, pre-Sep 11 - sometimes you're waved through without any questioning at all. It's strange that the enforcement was so much more rigid for flying.

[redbird]

The stricter enforcement is by the airlines--because if you're turned away when you land in a foreign country, the airline is responsible for getting you home, even if you don't have a ticket. That is, the foreign government requires them to get you home; this isn't your right, it's the other country that is entitled to prevent them from leaving unauthorized foreigners at the destination.

Re:

[rivka.livejournal.com]

That makes a great deal of sense.

[aiglet.livejournal.com]

Be forewarned -- even if you take the time to go sit in the express passport office, you might not get it until the next day...

Ask me sometime about my trip to Italy and the horrors of the NYC passport office! (It seems to be a lot cheaper where you are.)