You really need a passport
Posted on 01/06/2016 | About New Jersey
You really need to get a passport
There is nothing that makes my heart stop quicker than that 4:30 AM phone call from a client, "I'm at the airport and just realized that my passport expired yesterday. What do I do?" And I am thinking, after all my emails, all our discussions about getting a passport, "Yes, it is valid", he said. Yes, this actually happened and more often than you'd think.
Well I am saying it again, do you have a passport and is it valid for travel? If you plan to travel at least once or twice a year, you should be as aware of the expiration of your passport as you would your driver's license or when the mortgage is due!
The passport “crisis” of 2007 is about to return in 2016, according to a senior government official, speaking at the recent ASTA Global Convention in Washington D.C.
Nearly a decade ago, new requirements mandating Americans to have passports for travel to Mexico and Canada led to a surge in applications and a backlog in processing the documents.
With many of those documents set to expire over the next 24 months, coupled with an increase in Americans traveling abroad (today 125 million U.S. citizens have passports), Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant secretary of Passport Services at the U.S. State Department, said, “If I haven’t scared you to death, I haven’t accomplished my mission.”
Sprague spoke during the American Society of Travel Agent’s (ASTA) first Global Travel Exchange, an event aimed at connecting international ASTA members with U.S. members. She warned travel advisors to make sure the first thing we asked you about is the status of your current passports.
United States passport issuances increased significantly at the end of 2015, following the launch of a campaign urging Americans to apply early because of longer processing times.
The State Department is expecting a rush of renewals due to the expiration of the 18 million passports that were issued in 2007, following the implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which required anyone traveling by air from the United States to another country to have a passport.
By comparison, a total of 12.1 million passports were issued in 2006. “We expect increased passport applications through 2018, so we are continuing to get the word out to applicants to apply for or renew their passports well in advance of their travel,” said Beth Finan, a press officer with the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Department of State. "We're currently advising applicants that it will take about six weeks for routine service, up from four weeks last year."
Passport application surged this past fall. In October, 1,094,592 passports were issued, a 26% increase from the previous October. In November, 1,064,241 passports were issued, an increase of 49%. The State Department said passport applications have been steadily increasing over the last few years, with 14 million issued in 2014, 15.5 million in 2015 and an expected 17.4 million in 2016.
Renew—or apply—ASAP
You should take care of passport renewals as soon as possible or, for those seeking a passport for the first time, to apply for one right away, Sprague said. In addition to saving expedited processing fees, getting ahead of the curve will ensure you are not disappointed by not receiving your passports in time for your trips, she added.
Sprague also noted that it’s not true that there’s a specific waiting period before a passport expires before people can seek a renewal.
Another issue is that next January citizens who run out of visa pages will have to obtain a new passport instead of having additional pages inserted. Two options will be available: either 28 or 52 pages with no difference in cost.
Sprague noted that more than 90% of passports that are returned have less than two pages used.
Many countries require passports be valid for six months on arrival and you should also be aware that passports for children under 16 are valid only for five years.
Passport season
In the past “passport [application and renewal] season” began in mid-January, peaked in March and then ran steadily through August before trailing off, said Sprague.
Since last year, the trend has been for it to continue rising throughout the year. “This summer (2015), it never slowed down,” Sprague noted.
While passports aren’t required for cruises that begin and end in U.S. ports, we encourage you to obtain passports anyway; people may get sick or injured when visiting ports and have to fly back.
And when you lose your passports, you should check thoroughly before reporting it because once the passport is reported missing, it can’t be reinstated even if it’s found, Sprague said.
Passport info courtesy of Travel Market Report
