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Post by gyro on May 1, 2009 12:18:33 GMT
What do you think of the cost of a passport for whichever country you belong to ?
I'm now renewing mine and it'll cost 76 pounds. Add to that the fact my 3 yr old son HAS to have his own passport now, that will only be valid for 5 yrs, and that's another 42 pounds. I know, it's not a lot when you base it on the amount of years, but ...
I could agree with such a cost for a completely NEW passport for myself, for example, but just on renewal .. ? And my wife still travels under her maiden name as it would have cost 60 or so pounds a few years back when we got married JUST to alter her last name.
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2009 12:43:54 GMT
French passports went up to 88€ this year for everybody, including children, for both new passports and renewals.
American passports are $75 for adults and $60 for children ("application fee") plus a $25 "execution fee" for all ages.
This is all protecting us from nasty terrorists, of course.
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Post by pookie on May 1, 2009 13:05:47 GMT
Australian passports cost for adults A$208 lasts 10 years and for child A$104 lasts 5 years.I have recently renewed mine. My first one cost $50.
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Post by tillystar on May 1, 2009 13:20:58 GMT
Well I am a very stingy parent and as such Lil Star has a Spanish passport. She is entitled to both a British and a Spanish passport until she is 18 and then she has to choose citizenship of one country over the other. We were going away when she was 4 months old and a British passport was £42 and took 3 weeks, a Spanish one was £10 and took a week... so she has a Spanish one. Tight arse or what
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Post by happytraveller on May 1, 2009 13:43:01 GMT
Australian passports cost for adults A$208 lasts 10 years and for child A$104 lasts 5 years.I have recently renewed mine. My first one cost $50. Don't remind me ! My hubby needs a new aussie passport. 208 bucks... OUCH !
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Post by bixaorellana on May 1, 2009 14:54:47 GMT
I'm shocked at these prices! I had to renew my US passport (10-year span) a year ago and it cost 65 dollars -- which was only 10 dollars more than it had cost ten years previously.
Whoops -- I lie. I renewed in 2007.
Cost now: age 16 & over, 10-year passport, first time: 100 bucks ditto, renewal: $75
under 16, 5-year passport, first time: $85 (no info on renewal)
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Post by hwinpp on May 2, 2009 3:26:21 GMT
10 years validity, 65UER for the German passport, applied for in 2005. Quality is crap. The outer lining is disintegrating alread. The biometric f*ck all chip you get for free... At least it's easy to get extra pages put into the American passport. If the German one is full after 2 years you need a new one. Greedy bastards. They need to be re- educated, as they say here.
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Post by auntieannie on May 2, 2009 16:55:17 GMT
I will try to live without a passport.... I have an ID card that I will need to renew, but I don't need a passport unless I travel outside europe.
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Post by spindrift on May 2, 2009 17:01:49 GMT
Annie - don't you want to visit India? (for instance)
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Post by auntieannie on May 2, 2009 17:59:17 GMT
I have been twice to India, I have been to the States and to Oz... also, I usually travel to meet friends or family rarely otherwise.
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Post by Deleted on May 2, 2009 18:09:19 GMT
If I did not believe that everyone should do what their heart dictates, I would say that that is a shame. There are so many things and places to discover that do not involve one's friends or family. My 'friends' are often the people who have written, in books or articles, vivid accounts of the places they have discovered and loved, and frankly they seem to have better taste that many of my friends and family in my personal life.
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Post by gyro on May 3, 2009 19:07:35 GMT
Annie, you can travel across ALL European countries with just and ID card, rather than a passport ?
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Post by rikita on May 3, 2009 21:01:40 GMT
well i need a new passport next year. mine is falling apart anyway. i use it also as ID card, as i didn't renew that when it expired. only problem i ever had with that was some libraries where they want a proof of adress when applying for membership.
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Post by lagatta on May 4, 2009 1:43:16 GMT
My Canadian passport will fall due next year, as they are only valid for five years! This is atrocious, as so many places require at least six-months' validity - in some cases one year - to board a plane. I'll probably have to renew it this winter sometime. I always keep it valid, as I don't drive, so it is the best identification available. Not everyplace will take the health card.
By the way, gyro, here in Québec a woman's birth name is ALWAYS her legal name on all papers (healthcard, passport, driving licence etc). She could change her name legally, but it would be as complicated and costly as any other man or woman making a change-of-name request. Marriage changes nothing.
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Post by gyro on May 4, 2009 5:09:36 GMT
That's stupid though, isn't it ? If your name changes, your name changes, end of story; it's got to be one thing or the other.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2009 5:11:21 GMT
In France also, women keep their birth name officially. They can "use" their husband's name if they want to.
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Post by gyro on May 4, 2009 5:19:24 GMT
Sounds stupid to me. You either take a name or you don't.
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Post by bazfaz on May 4, 2009 8:22:28 GMT
We have UK passports. If we renew them at the British embassy in Paris I understand it costs much more than if they are renewed in Britain - apparently the issuing of passports has been outsourced.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2009 11:41:13 GMT
We can consider ourselves lucky compared to Zimbabwe.
Announcing the shocking 305 per cent increase in adult passport fees that is set to affect millions of prospective travellers across the country, the Registrar General’s office cited escalating costs in sourcing the paper to produce the travel document.
Before the latest increase, children were paying only US$120 but will now be required to pay US$607.
Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede was not immediately available for comments but officials at his office said the latest review in fees was with immediate effect.
"If an adult loses his his/her passport one would be asked to pay US$400 to get a new passport," said an official at Mudede’s office.
An estimated three million Zimbabweans are currently outside the country after fleeing home because of political violence and worsening economic hardships.
Hundreds of thousands more Zimbabweans travel to neighbouring countries especially more prosperous South Africa and Botswana in search of food and other basic commodities in critical short supply in their own country.
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Post by bjd on May 4, 2009 13:51:07 GMT
From what I have read, most of those Zimbabweans who are going to S Africa or elsewhere are not going through official border crossings with passports.
Gyro, why do you think women should take their husband's name at marriage? I kept my maiden name for all official things and bank accounts, but often use my husband's simply because it's easier for the French to remember and pronounce.
I have always disliked the idea that a woman getting married becomes Mrs John Smith -- as though she ceased to exist.
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Post by auntieannie on May 4, 2009 15:35:35 GMT
Gyro, YES! I can travel throughout Europe with only my ID card...hehe...
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Post by Jazz on May 4, 2009 18:52:06 GMT
...I have always disliked the idea that a woman getting married becomes Mrs John Smith -- as though she ceased to exist. I agree. But I don't mind the idea of adding the husband's last name to the end....Jean Jones-Smith.
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Post by gyro on May 4, 2009 19:01:33 GMT
Bjd; you misunderstand me. I do NOT think that a woman has to take her husbands name when they marry; that's a completely personal and non-judgemental decision to take, in my opinion. But if she does, it seems stupid for that NOT to be her name legally in instances like passports etc. As I said earlier, it should be either one thing or the other, not some mish-mash .
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Post by bixaorellana on May 5, 2009 1:31:40 GMT
Gyro, when you say there would have been a fee for your wife to have her name changed, did you mean for everything, or just to get the passport?
I think -- anyone can correct me -- that in the US a woman simply changes her name from maiden to married by changing it on her social security number, driver's license, etc. And I'm pretty sure that you can use whatever name as long as it is not used to defraud.
In Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries, everyone's last name is double -- first the father's last name, then the mother's. Women keep their maiden names always. So, if Oscar Rodriguez Garcia marries Maribel Vasquez Bernal, their children's last name will be Rodriguez Vasquez.
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Post by gyro on May 5, 2009 4:24:22 GMT
It would have cost sixty pound or so to simply change her surname ON THE PASSPORT, yes. Nothing else, not another ten 10 years worth of passport, just one word.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 5, 2009 4:54:04 GMT
Highway robbery!
One thing I've always wondered about passports ~~ does the issuing government do any checking on the applicant whatsoever? It used to be, before "Homeland Security" and all that crap, that one would receive a US passport within 10 working days. What were they doing in that time -- a deep background check for criminal activity, or merely futzing around making sure the picture was pasted on straight?
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2009 4:57:56 GMT
I was appalled when I got my last US passport renewed at the U.S. embassy in Paris. It is now forbidden to apply in person -- you must do it by mail. So you mail in your old passport and some new photos, and you receive the cancelled passport and the new passport in the mail about two weeks later. There is nobody to check if you are alive or dead or if the photos look like you or not. Homeland security?
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Post by gyro on May 5, 2009 5:01:47 GMT
I think there's plenty of checks that go on to verify if you are OFFICIALLY live or dead, and of course the photos can be sense checked when you use the passport. PLus, here, when you send a photo away, it has to be signed to be a good likeness by a 'responsible' member of the community .
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Post by bixaorellana on May 5, 2009 5:05:44 GMT
I want to know how to get the job as the person who uses the hole-puncher to cancel passports. What are the qualifications? Is there a test to determine strength of hand? What's the GS rating?
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2009 5:05:47 GMT
In a foreign country, I don't think that their checking possibilities are quite as efficient. France is one thing, but what if it were the Congo or Papua New Guinea?
If my next door neighbor looks even vaguely like me (or how I might have evolved since the last passport photo 10 years ago), no problem changing identity.
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