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Paying to enter and leave your own country?
tejini
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Long story short, thanks to it costing $75-$100 just to apply for a passport I have to miss out on an opportunity to leave the US for the first time in order to assist my uncle delivering construction materials to the Bahamas.
Normally the cost wouldn't be so bad, but after being laid-off and with jobs being scarce around where I live, it's quite the chunk of change especially with a car payment and car insurance payment to make.
My sob-story/bitching aside, do you think it's right to have to pay to leave or enter your own country?
I don't mind paying a small fee in order to process the paperwork and such but I find that a $100 is a bit too much.
To clarify, it's $75 to apply and $25 to execute it if you are applying in person at the post office or such.
Normally the cost wouldn't be so bad, but after being laid-off and with jobs being scarce around where I live, it's quite the chunk of change especially with a car payment and car insurance payment to make.
My sob-story/bitching aside, do you think it's right to have to pay to leave or enter your own country?
I don't mind paying a small fee in order to process the paperwork and such but I find that a $100 is a bit too much.
To clarify, it's $75 to apply and $25 to execute it if you are applying in person at the post office or such.
3ds Friend Code: 1375-7311-7639
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Yes, it sucks if you have a sudden chance to go out of the country and lack one (thus didn't plan the fee), but it's not that bad in general (if you can afford to fly to the bahamas, you can likely afford $100 every 10 years for a passport)
edit: random checking, US fees seem a lot lower than a random smattering check of euro fees.
Still, it would be nice to have a cheaper temporary passport you can get that lasts a fraction of the time for those who rarely leave the country.
3ds Friend Code: 1375-7311-7639
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I believe that the fact that "machine readable" aka rfid embedded chips are the main culprit. Infact, a quick google search shows that alot of countries had a passport price increase after they became the norm.
I would like to point out at this point that this is mostly a rant thread about why I should pay $100 for something I'm bound to use only once.
3ds Friend Code: 1375-7311-7639
$75-$100 is the fee for the passport, period. It's not like it costs that much to apply and then you pay more later.
A passport lasts 10 years, so you're looking at $10/year for its use. Trivial. And really that fee is for the bureaucracy that processes it. Since a passport is something that only like 25% of US Citizens have (though this will probably go up now that they are required for Mexico/Canada travel) I think it makes sense to have people pay a fee for the processing.
Your situation sucks, but if your uncle needed your help he could have paid your passport fee for you.
You pay for it because countries require that they know who you are and where you're from in order to let you into their country.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Because the file has to exist with the same level of security (though they still get hacked, remember the election) for if you only ever travel once or for every day of the rest of your life. If you don't feel that going to the Bahamas is worth spending the fee for a passport, then don't go to the Bahamas.
I'm pretty sure there is no RFID chip in US Passport Books, unless this is bleeding edge new. The new passport CARDS have them, and are limited scope mini passports.
The books went up in price a bit when they changed the design around, but the overall change was like, $10 of the total cost to obtain one.
Again, only complaining about the fact that I have to pay $100 for something I'll pretty much use only once.
EDIT:
To kildy
if there isn't my mistake.
3ds Friend Code: 1375-7311-7639
They're now required to go to Canada and Mexico, meaning that the usage is going to increase from ~30% of the population to, like, half over the course of this year alone. That tends to gum up the works. When I got mine 4 years ago before all this fooferaw it only took 3-4 weeks without a rush order. And I probably got caught in the summer rush of college kids going backpacking.
Last time I checked (about two weeks ago) the State Dept. was putting the processing time at around a month.
Edit: Ah, yeah, damn, the Canada thing. I should really find $100 to get my application in already.
That's not limited to passports though; there's an entry-level price for most things irrespective of how much you're going to use it. You have to pay a minimum of $199 for an Xbox 360 even if all you want to do with it is play Uno by yourself. Probably not worth it for the solo Uno player, but that $199 pays for the potential of all the other games.
Similarly, the $100 for the passport pays for the bureaucracy needed to facilitate 10 years of international travel. If you're not going to take advantage of it then that's your business, but it's not up to the government to provide you with a cheaper 1-shot passport, any more than it's up to Microsoft to produce a $30 single-player Uno machine.
...then decide to use it more than once.
Reminder: you now need passports to cross the US/Canada boarder
Get one now because they are processing record numbers of applications and if you wait you won't have it done when you need it by.
The new passports do have RFID chips in them.
and Pretty Pictures
and famous AMERICAN quotations
I have an old one buy my dad has a shiny new one
It seems to vary depending on when you get it. I got mine back in March and it took about 3-4 weeks with no sort of rush processing.
As far as Canada (and I'd imagine Mexico, but I'm not sure), you can get a "passport card" which is cheaper than the book, but obviously more limited. Not sure if it's cheaper if you get it by itself, but the clerk said I could tack it onto my book application for $25, I think (maybe a bit more, I was more paying attention to how my pictures made me look like a wacko terrorist). So, there is a cheaper option, but it limits your countries, not so much the time.
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I got mine before the RFID was implemented. You don't have to renew it when you turn 18, do you?
I'd rather not have a computer chip attached to my ID for as long as possible.
I dunno, I pay $100 for things I only use once, like tickets to football games and concerts. In fact, I don't even have the option to use them more than once.
NNID: Hakkekage
The passport card is cheaper and you can get it by itself. Except the passport card is not valid for... wait for it...
WTF?
As for those of you worried about computer chips, how is it any different than the immigration people just putting all your information into the computer?
$100 is worth it for events like that, the sheer entertainment you get is more than worth it.
3ds Friend Code: 1375-7311-7639
But really, 3-4 weeks still seems like a long time. It is a book, with your picture, and a series of numbers/letters. If we can get a driver's license in fifteen minutes (from the time they take information to the time you receive the license... this is not counting the 1-2 hour wait at the DMV), why does it take anywhere from 1-3 months (or more, if the horror stories are to be believed) to receive a passport?
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/