Passport Booklet and a Passport Card? - Page 4

Lynnster67 · ‎08-18-2015

@haddon9 wrote:
I didn't even realize that there was a passport card. My passport is expiring this summer and I have to renew soon.

I'm in Pa and have heard that starting in January, PA is one of a few states that will need a valid passport (I guess the card would be okay too) for domestic air travel. It has something to do with a PA license though I'm hoping they change it before this happens. I can't imagine having to use my passport just to fly anywhere and I go to Florida a lot as well!

Do you plan on taking a trip outside of the US within the next couple of years? Why not just get a regular passport which covers everything. I would skip the card. Getting the card would just be one more thing for me to keep track of.

It's been 10 years since passports became required for travel to Canada, Mexico, and the Carribean. If you're going to be traveling internationally soon, I would get the renewal paperwork in sooner rather than later, since a lot of passports are going to be expiring all at once. Also, a number of countries will not allow you to enter if your passport is w/in 6 months of expiry. There is a 5-year grace period for renewing your passport; other wise you will have to start the process from scratch as if you never had one.

crazered · ‎04-01-2010

As I mentioned before the passport card will work for US flying as an I D. Our state Missouri does not have Real ID yet. We applied for the card as we don't plan to fly overseas

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

I mailed in my renewal application today, and am getting both the booklet and the card.

By the way, I called the 800 number with a passport question yesterday, and the guy with whom I spoke, as part of his job I'm sure, read me their official instructions for filing a renewal application. One thing he said was interesting and I wouldn't have done otherwise; he said to mail it in a weather resistant envelope due to its important contents (my current passport is enclosed and of course the photo). I had a padded weather resistent envelope around here from Scotch brand which was the right size 8.5" x 11" (I was instructed not to fold the application). So just FYI, I was told to do that (as well as be sure to get tracking which of course I knew).

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

So I had a mini nightmare with returning my passport renewal application. I sent it in last Friday (of course my application has my social security number on it, there's a photo on the app now and my old passport is also in the envelope) and the tracking stopped at the Philadelphia hub on Sunday June 11th. By the 14th with no tracking update I was worried and called the national CS line at the PO. No further tracking.

I'm thinking by now someone at the hub stole my envelope, which was of course addressed to the "National Passport Processing Center" so everyone knows what's in it. This morning I got a call from a really nice lady at the Philadelphia PO Customer Service office. Because of the volume of passports sent, someone from the Passport Processing Center picks them up at the PO hub. There was a "glitch" in the system and my batch last Sunday the 11th was never scanned into the system. However, and very wisely indeed, the Passport Processing Center gives the PO a list of all the tracking numbers of the envelopes it picks up so the PO has a list record of them. This nice lady told me the Processing Center person had indeed picked up my application envelope last Sunday.

Upshot - do put your email addy on the application for updates. I didn't want to give it for fear of also getting spam mail from the US gov. but I just went to the passport site and gave it so I'll get updates about when my new passport (and card) will be sent to me. The lady from the PO also said that post people don't know this but your old passport is sent back too, usually separately from the new one, with holes punched in it to show it's no longer good. I was suprised that the old one is returned to me and she said post people don't know it is.

Passport drama over. I was so worried that someone had stolen my application envelope. And the $140 check enclosed for my new passport and passport card was the least of my worries!

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

Hooray! After the "trauma" this week of thinking the P.O. had lost my passport, I see from looking at my bank account online that the feds have cashed my check! Whoohoo!

My passport booklet and card are underway.

crazered · ‎04-01-2010

The passport card is GOOD for air except if you are flying international. I checked on line and also called. My state so far has not issued the real ID this is why we got passport carsd. We probably would not be going overseas..

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

@crazered wrote:
The passport card is GOOD for air except if you are flying international. I checked on line and also called. My state so far has not issued the real ID this is why we got passport carsd. We probably would not be going overseas..

@crazered Yes, thanks. I think that was made clear a few times earlier on this thread. Not for international travel.

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

@Pearlee wrote:
I mailed in my renewal application today, and am getting both the booklet and the card.

By the way, I called the 800 number with a passport question yesterday, and the guy with whom I spoke, as part of his job I'm sure, read me their official instructions for filing a renewal application. One thing he said was interesting and I wouldn't have done otherwise; he said to mail it in a weather resistant envelope due to its important contents (my current passport is enclosed and of course the photo). I had a padded weather resistent envelope around here from Scotch brand which was the right size 8.5" x 11" (I was instructed not to fold the application). So just FYI, I was told to do that (as well as be sure to get tracking which of course I knew).

I received my new passport booklet this past Saturday and my passport card separately this past Monday. Although the front of the passport booklet looks like my old one, the booklet is quite different and much prettier inside, although heavier than my old one. My old one was pre-9/11 and this new one has all sorts of electronic stuff embedded inside it. My photo, which wasn't too bad when I sent it, even looks a bit distorted in the booklet - maybe because of the facial recognition stuff? The pages of the booklet are really very pretty, with colored images of Americana, including one page of Mt. Rushmore which I really liked, an eagle, etc. Very nice!

The passport card is about what I expected (looks like a driver's license) and also has electronic stuff embedded in it. They sent a paper sleeve I'm told to keep it in when I'm not using it. So, although I'd planned to carry it in my wallet as an extra photo ID, I ended up putting it with my booklet into my bank safety deposit box. The paperwork with the card says there is RFID stuff in it, whatever. Oddly, my color photo was pretty much black and white and washed out looking on the passport card. I did like the holographic eagle that's above my face. Oh, my, I can only guess what kind of I.D. tech stuff is inside each item that I cannot see. Such are the times....

It took under a month to receive both items, much less time then they predict at six to eight weeks. I can cross that off my "to do" list now.

patbz · ‎03-10-2010

DH and I renewed passports (and got cards) in Nov. Around the first of January, we mailed both passports FedEx overnight to an expediting service in order to obtain Chinese visas. Long story short, fed ex lost them, misdelivered them, lost them again before "finding" them and finally delivering them to us. We had a $3000 trip on the line in late February; what a nightmare!

bonnielu · ‎03-11-2010

I just renewed. I only got the booklet. I travel outside the US once a year. I figure just the one passport standard booklet will be just fine. When I travel I have a paper copy of my passport and put it in my suitcase just in case the passport gets lost. We were told to lock the passport in our cabin safe and that we did not need to take it off the ship until we actually arrive back in the US.