Hey everyone. I just thought it would be a interesting question. I renewed mine in 2009 and haven't used it since then. My wife has one that has been expired for nearly well over 10 years and I don't know that many people who have one. The cost has gone up a lot too.
I have one. I am also the passport lady for my financially challenged friends. They suck at saving $ but all said they wanted a passport "just in case". Every payday I go and pick up $10 from each of them and put it in their passport fund. I think they each have $50-70 in there now.
I had one but it's long expired. A few years back I needed the passport number for my secret clearance ten year update. I thought I had lost it, so I had to write the state department for a copy, and had to pay some money (according the their website) for a processing fee. They sent me a passport copy & my check back saying there was no charge. A couple of months back I was looking for a thermometer or something and found my long "lost" passport!
I don't have one for professional reasons. If my company wants to send me out of the country on an assignment...I can't go because I don't have a passport. Not that I'm opposed to traveling (quite the opposite, in fact) but doing it for work is a total pain in the ass. I don't even like to fly domestically for my job because dealing with all the gear is such a hassle.
We got ours just a year or two ago based on rumors that it may be required for interstate air travel some day. Also I hear the NJ driver's license is technically non-compliant for air travel ID, but it's been given a waiver for a while. So if that goes sour we'll need the passports to visit the families in the south. We discovered while applying that they require birth certificates with the parents' names on them. Ours (from 1956 and 57) didn't. So the post office sent us home and we had to get new birth certificates issued. My wife went thru the hospital and had a hassle. I went thru a website.
I've got one, as does the Mrs. Ours are fairly new--only a year or so old, and only have a single stamp (Dominican Republic) in them. My older son Scott actually got his passport before either Kathy or I did. He's been to Puerto Rico, Czech Republic, Germany, and Austria. Chris (my youngest) does not have one yet.
There was a brief period when I was a teenager when I didn't need a passport, after the EU had opened its internal borders and before I started travelling farther abroad. I remember the extreme thrill: abandoning borders felt like the beginning of the future. Once, going to Austria with friends, we spent more time at the ex-border than we ever had going through the border check before: we parked our car where the border used to be and walked over the line with leisure, to and fro.
My wife and I got one earlier this year for a cruise we took in September. There was an error on mine that I had to have corrected and got it back in time for the cruise.
I'll get one when I need one. As of yet, I haven't needed one. I have an enhanced driver's license, so I can leave the country, but my options are much more limited.
because your movement is strictly controlled on a cruise - they can account for your whereabouts more easily versus taking off in your own at an airport when traveling on your own.
Even when you're in port? I liked Cozumel. I found a newsstand and got an English language version of Newsweek. Ended up with a horrible sunburn after swimming in the ocean though. Annalee was so cute (she was two or three IIRC back then) she would play in the water and then get fussy and start rubbing her eyes fiercely (salt water).
When I was in the Czech republic I went to the border with poland , you could see where the border guard shacks and gates used to be. A lot of stones fit together there which had been a lot of work.
I can't imagine not having one. And if Brexit goes as badly as feared, I may end up needing it twice per day.
2 passports - one Canadian and one British. Both get used frequently but I'm wondering what it's going to be like to travel with my British passport in the EU now when they get everything sorted out. Used to avoid some pretty serious lines with my British passport. I should probably google that. ETA: Oh Dammit
