Quarter Life Crisis

The world according to Sven-S. Porst

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Passport

226 words

I ordered a new passport this morning as my old one is going to expire. It costs freaking €28. I guess I'll have to travel a lot to make it worth the investment. And by that I mean propertravel far as I won't need a passport for travel in Europe.

Traveling the web for the time being I found:

January 20, 2004, 1:40

Comments

Comment by paul mison: User icon

You’ll still need a passport for the UK, of course. The Daily Mail doesn’t like Schengen, so neither does the government. Bah.

I particularly had cause to rue this a couple of weeks ago when I forgot my passport on the way to Geneva. Thankfully Gareth knows his way to Heathrow even in his sleep.

January 20, 2004, 11:14

Comment by ssp: User icon

That’s not true.

While UK banks (or other bureaucrats for that sake) have difficulties in accepting a German ID card (which costs only €8, by the way, and is much easier to carry) as a valid form of ID - when applying for a National Insurance number, say, they wouldn’t accept my ID card and preferred the ‘secure’ forms of ID given by my student and credit cards –, border officials are perfectly happy with seeing my ID card. In fact, I never used my passport when travelling within Europe in the past decade.

The only places I needed it for were South Africa and the U.S. because they want to put little stickers and rubber stamps into your passport on arrival…

January 20, 2004, 14:25

Comment by Christopher Davis: User icon

Good idea to get it before October if you plan to visit the US; passports issued after that without biometrics (and no country, to my knowledge, is going to meet the deadline) will not be valid for the Visa Waiver Program…requiring you to get a US visa to visit.

January 20, 2004, 22:20

Comment by ssp: User icon

Huh, didn’t know it will be that bad. But I am happy that I won’t have to worry now. Particularly after hearing the how annoying it is to apply for a visa (phone expensive numbers first to get an appointment, the phone system may disconnect you a couple of times for better entertainment during that, then pay €80 or so before getting anything, then go Berlin or Frankfurt early in the morning and queue…)

Not that getting visa for Germany is said to be much better, but I really don’t see why countries prefer making the application for visa unpleasant and expensive. I always thought our diplomats should make a good impression abroad. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear people say I am looking forward to going xyz. When getting my visum at their embassy people were so friendly and efficient.?

January 21, 2004, 1:03

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