Brin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brin_bellway) wrote2024-03-01 01:08 pm
brin_bellway) wrote2024-03-01 01:08 pm
""Fun"" fact of the day (March 1, 2024)
[cw: government bullshit]
I ran the numbers on this today, and did you know that getting passports renewed for a group of three dual citizens costs over a thousand fucking dollars?
(CAD$480 for three Canadian ones and USD$390 (CAD$528) for three American ones)
(and the border-control people really strongly prefer that you have both, though in a pinch they will generally, grudgingly, eventually let you get away with having just one)
Our U.S. passports are already expired, and the Canadian ones expire in a few months.
I don't have *plans* to travel outside Canada, but like, you don't always know in advance, you know? And my parents may or may not need to show up to an in-person thing in Massachusetts in early 2025: it's not yet clear.
I ran the numbers on this today, and did you know that getting passports renewed for a group of three dual citizens costs over a thousand fucking dollars?
(CAD$480 for three Canadian ones and USD$390 (CAD$528) for three American ones)
(and the border-control people really strongly prefer that you have both, though in a pinch they will generally, grudgingly, eventually let you get away with having just one)
Our U.S. passports are already expired, and the Canadian ones expire in a few months.
I don't have *plans* to travel outside Canada, but like, you don't always know in advance, you know? And my parents may or may not need to show up to an in-person thing in Massachusetts in early 2025: it's not yet clear.
no subject
no subject
Ah, and here we have the *actual* fun fact for today.
---
>>the price is one of the reasons i haven't yet
At least one passport is, well, *more* affordable than six. Relatively.
---
A passport *card* is only 30 USD (65 if you've never had a passport before, though that $35 would still be tacked on if you were getting a regular passport instead), but can only be used within North America (defined broadly enough to cover Caribbean islands) and can't be used for air travel even if you *are* going to somewhere in North America. This may or may not be a good tradeoff for your threat model.
(Personally, I considered it, then remembered the time that Mom had to fly out last-minute to visit her brother in the hospital and decided that probably not.)
---
>>(another is i keep wanting to get another name change first but nothing has been stable enough for me to start that)
Apparently, if you change your name and apply for a new-name passport *while your old-name passport is less than a year old*, the new one is free; otherwise it's full price. Weird cliff there, but good to know.
no subject
I don't really say "uff da" much online, do I? I've used it since long before I came to Minnesota -- I actually learned it from my Geology 101 professor, who was Minnesotan -- but I've definitely been using it more now that I'm around people who are familiar with it.
(I think "ope" might be endemic as far south as northern Indiana though. I can't remember a time when I *didn't* say "ope, lemme squeeze right past ya there".)