![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaIn IM conversation with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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.
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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-08-12 07:14 am (UTC)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.)