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Passports: who needs ‘em? Who cares?

May 7, 2007

When it comes to passports, Americans are ignorant. And stupid. That’s the conclusion of a survey conducted by the Travel Industry Association and marketing firm Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell.

Granted, the words “ignorant” and “stupid” appear nowhere in the press release or the survey, which TIA was kind enough to send me. Instead, the trade group uses softer terms, like “confused.”

But the numbers tell a troubling story.

Only half of the respondents knew they needed a passport to re-enter the United States by air, car, or ship from key vacation destinations like Spain, England, Japan and France. Less than one in twenty understand the passport requirements for travel to the Caribbean.

About 7 percent incorrectly believe that a passport isn’t needed to travel from any country by air. Nearly one-quarter of the respondents are unsure whether a passport is needed to re-enter the U.S. by air.

My prediction: there will be a lot of disappointed travelers this summer.

Other interesting tidbids …

Passport, shmassport. Three quarters of U.S. residents don’t have a passport. Three quarters!

We’ll pay to promote U.S. tourism. More than seven in ten would “be willing to pay an exit fee that would be used for improving the arrival and inspection process and to help promote travel to the U.S.” This is a self-serving survey question, and I wonder how it was presented in the survey. I don’t know anyone who would pay an exit “fee” to promote U.S. tourism. Silly pollsters!

Kids stay home. Only one in seven children under 18 have a U.S. passport. That means our kids aren’t seeing the world. If you think we have a foreign policy crisis now, wait until the next generation …

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

21 comments

  • Marge Purnell

    Ignorant and stupid is accurate. These statistics are unbelievable! Don’t Americans read or listen to the news??

  • Jenniferwriter

    I agree – I don’t understand what the big deal is about getting a passport. It’s a simple process, relatively inexpensive and part of your ticket to the world. I usually carry mine with me as you never know when opportunity might arise, like the time a friend and I met my mom on a long layover at DFW and our friend, who just happened to have her passport with her, bought a ticket and went off to Europe for two weeks, all on the spur of the moment!

  • BriCo

    While it appears many Americans are oblivious to the requirements of when a passport is needed, I must quickly note that MOST Americans do NOT travel outside the U.S. except to Puerto Rico or the Caribbean, which in the past did not require a passport. Jenniferwriter thinks it’s no big deal to get/have a passport, but the $100 fee, plus the hassle getting the photos, standing in long lines, and waiting the several weeks for the documents, plus putting them in a safe place you will remember, certainly is a waste for something you never use or intend to. As for her friend who happened to be at the airport and just decided to leave at the spur of the moment – well, how many of can do that, considering work, money, or personal commitments? Get real, Jennifer.

  • Lisa

    I can easily believe these statistics. Since many of my employees do not have passports, I have to plan our company “vacations” accordingly. Thus far we have been able to take annual cruises, but next year that will not be possible without passports, so we may have to come up with something new.

    Those of us who travel frequently have a completely different perspective of travel than your average person. We know that it’s frequently cheaper to fly to Europe than from the midwest to either coast. We know that there are great travel bargains out there to be had, but the typical American family (if there is such a thing) still loads the kids up and hits the road for their summer vacation. They don’t need passports to enjoy all that America has to offer, so why should they incur the expense? For a family of five, that could be as much as some people spend on their enitre vacation.

    I will say one nice thing the Passport service is doing – the local Passport Fairs. It’s great that they are making the service available to everyone so that all one needs to do is show up with their documentation and pay the fees and everything is done in one place without having to run around getting photos etc. for a passport. This service makes it easy for anyone who wants one to get a passport. Kudos!

  • S. Shopkow

    Before taking a trip to France and the UK, a postal employee told me I needed to have at least 6 months on my passport. Since I was within a month of going, I wrote to the local consulates. The Brits kindly wrote back saying that as long as I had proof of leaving (ticket) and was out of the country by the time the passport expired, I was free to visit. I was relieved since the cost of quick passport renewal is astronomical.

    It seems that no one in government is very clear on what the rules are. Does the US want all citizens to have 6 months before leaving?

  • Jenniferwriter

    To Brico,

    I have to disagree it’s that big of a deal. The last time I had mine renewed, I went to Costco, spent $5 on passport photos, which I had within a matter of minutes, and did the rest of it by mail. If you plan ahead, waiting a few weeks is no big deal, and as for storing it at home, again, I don’t understand why that’s a big deal. Aren’t there other important papers/documents that your need to keep at hand?

    Yes, I presume for a family of five it could be a bit costly, but they’re good for 10 years. I guess what I don’t understand is that instead of stressing out whether or not one needs a passport, why not just get one and be done with it?

    But that’s just my opinion. In any case, happy travels to all, whether here or abroad…

  • Jean

    http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html
    Follow that link to read how to get a passport or renew one. I just renewed mine and it did not cost an arm and a leg. Less than $100 and I can use it for 10 years.
    A bargain, I’d say.
    If you don’t want to travel outside of US territories, then don’t bother. We prefer to keep our passports current, because we might win that big trip or a friend might and decide to take us with them. We choose to travel and consider it a blessing to be able to see as much of the world as we can. Thank you for the helpful column and newsletters.

  • Cynthia

    S. Shopkow
    It’s not the US regulation that the postal worker was commenting on. US re-entry only requires a passport for US citizens returning to the US. Many other countries have a requirement that US citizens entering their country must have a passport that is valid for at least 6 months past their intended stay. It is more common that not, so the postal worker probably thought he was doing you a favor by letting you know.

  • TomCayman

    I run a resort in the Caribbean and am very involved in Caribbean tourism in general. The Caribbean is looking at a poor summer season, as that is prime family travel season.

    For the more upscale Caribbean islands (such as Cayman), they didn’t suffer much in the winter, as most of their adult travellers were passport holders.

    However, now it comes to the summer and family travel season, a lot of those families have realised “heck, now my kids need passports too”, and by the time they worked it out the backlog at the passport offices had got so bad that they’ll end up vacationing in the USA this year.

  • Skip

    I did some math off Lisa’s comment:

    5 passport photos: $45.
    5 passports: $500.
    Total: $545

    I’d like to know what type vacation a family of five can take for $545?

  • http://BangkokAtoZ.com Mekhong Kurt

    I live abroad, so of course I have to have my U.S. passport.

    While the cost of a passport isn’t all that bad considering that they’re good for 10 years, for adults, I’m not sure I buy that it actually costs the government anything near $100.

    Though this piece focuses on passports, Americans need to know something about visas they get from other countries. A tourist visa is *not* automatic entry into the issuing country — it gives the traveler the right to show up at a port of entry, where ion officer will decide whether or not to all the person to formally enter the country.

    Sometimes there’s incorrect information. For instance, a foreigner can come to Thailand for up to 30 days without a visa, though your passport is stamped both upon entry and exit.

    However, some years ago I was returning from a visit to Texas, and I hadn’t obtained a visa since I knew I could enter under the 30-day program. At the airport in Los Angeles, the check-in cleark told me I couldn’t board unless I had a visa for Thailand. I showed him my passport, which had numerous instances of stamps showing I had entered and exited without a visa. He called a supervisor over, who said the same thing. He was puzzled by my passport, and looked up the information he said the airline had received from Thai immigration. Then he invited me to scroll down the screen to see if I could find any mention of the 30-day program. And there wasn’t any. But I got lucky. He told me the cheapest onward fare, saying as far as he was concerned, I wouldn’t be staying in Bangkok. Of course, when I arrived, I was pstamped in, and returned my onward ticket to the airline’s local office to get a refund.

    Also, some countries require you to have a specified number of blank pages in your passport.

  • Laurence

    If the $100 fee for a passport is a waste of money, what about the incredible soaring fees for visas? The U.S. charges $130 for a foreign visitor to apply for a visa (no refunds if it’s denied), even if you’re “visiting” to change planes. In response, other countries have jacked up their visa fees. I went to China 2 years ago and the visa was $50. Now, for U.S. passport holders only, it’s $130. Not everyone who travels is a wealthy jet-setter, and many tourists are budgeting each $10 meal, $2 subway ticket, and $40 hotel room. $130 is a big price to pay for an ornate stamp in a passport. And by the way, I don’t feel the slightest bit more “secure” now that visas cost twice as much as they used to.

  • http://cruisemates.com cruisemates

    “Lisa said I can easily believe these statistics. Since many of my employees do not have passports, I have to plan our company “vacations” accordingly. Thus far we have been able to take annual cruises, but next year that will not be possible without passports, so we may have to come up with something new.”

    Actually, the passport requirements for people traveling by cruise ship to Canada, Mexico, Bermuda or most of the Caribbean will NOT be changing that drastically under the just finalized Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. You can still get by with a state ID and a birth certificate. I am well aware of the misconception that passports will be needed for all border crossings soon, but it simply is not true in the case of sea travel.

    A sneak preview of my WHTI article explaining it all is here: http://www.cruisemates.com/articles/feature/passport08.cfm

    Actually, quite surprising, but the WHTI actually says:

    When traveling entirely within the Western Hemisphere on a cruise ship, and when the U.S. citizen boards the cruise ship at a port or place within the United States and returns on the return voyage of the same cruise ship to the same United States port or place from where he or she originally departed. That U.S. citizen may present a government-issued photo identification document in combination with either an original or a copy of his or her birth certificate, a Consular Report of Birth Abroad issued by the Department, or a Certificate of Naturalization issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services before entering the United States; if the U.S. citizen is under the age of 16, he or she may present either an original or a copy of his or her birth certificate, a Consular Report of Birth Abroad issued by the Department, or a Certificate of Naturalization issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services;

    http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-6725.pdf

  • http://philtarley.com Phil Tarley

    Before the requirement came down for passports to go to the Carribean or
    Canada 85% of Americans had no passports. That means that Americans have not a clue about the world in which we live, except for what their politicians or dumbed-down newspapers tell them. Though we are a bilingual country, xenophobic Anglo Americans refuse to speak Spanish, or learn any other languages. Why bother, they don’t travel abroad, or leave their Anglo shopping malls and communities. (Outside of our biggest cities, we are a very segregated country.) If you add to this equation, the very scary stat that more than 50% of our citizens do NOT believe in Evolution..You have a society that can’t read, knows little about the world and is anti -science…Go figure.

  • James M

    As to the comment that only 1 in 7 US children have passports, I would ask you to tell me how hard it is getting passports for children. I have twin girls under age 2. When I went to the City Hall in Boston to get birth certificates (why they wouldn’t automatically send them is another story), I stopped by the passport window, figuring with the fresh certificates, less than a month old, my checkbook, photos and the rest of the day in front of me, I could take care of this problem for 5 years, and from then on, just play and pay renew-by-mail. However, both parents have to be with the children, who must be present, to get passports issued, and, to be honest, all babies, including mine, look enough alike that I can’t imagine a disinterested worker really being able to ferret out whatever they’re trying to prevent. I’m impressed by the 1 in 7 parents being able to pull this together (parents of only children get fewer “impress points,” but still are impressive).

    I moved to California with the kids and it was easier.

    You really don’t want to be at the Post Office the day we come in to do this.

  • Steve

    I know this post is so old that it’s unlikely anyone will read this, but I feel compelled to respond to Phil Tarley’s ignorant assertions about people who don’t have passports. As one of the 85% he accused of being illiterate, xenophobic, and opposed to science (none of which is an accurate characterization in my case), I neither have anything against foreign countries nor do I have a problem recognizing that other Americans have different priorities than I do and as such they’ve obtained passports and traveled abroad.

    I like to travel. I do so as much as I can, which isn’t all that much given money and vacation time constraints. I’ve never been outside the U.S. for a variety of reasons. When I was growing up, my parents didn’t have the money to take overseas vacations. I chose not to study abroad in college partly for financial reasons. And now, my vacation time is split between recurring trips to the same destinations (that I really enjoy and do not want to sacrifice) and exploring some of the hundreds of places in the U.S. that I’ve never been to but want desperately to visit. I haven’t really had a burning desire to go overseas, and I don’t consider it my civic duty to vacation somewhere that isn’t on my high-priority list just to satisfy those who think I must be ignorant if I’ve never been abroad.

    When you consider that a large percentage of the American population cannot afford to take a real vacation *at all* (even to a destination within driving distance), it’s even more insensitive to accuse those who don’t hold passports of being jingoistic “ugly Americans” who sneer at foreign countries.

    There’s a heck of a lot to see right here in the U.S. I’m *not* saying that makes our country better than any other, but it does mean that I have a large number of trips that I’d really love to take that don’t involve leaving the country. As such, I don’t have a passport and don’t intend to do much overseas travel (my wife and I do plan to visit Europe in 2013 thanks to a generous benefit my employer offers…she’s more excited about it than I am, but I’m sure it will be fun).

    Unlike Phil, I don’t consider my personal preferences to be better than the preferences of someone who feels differently about where they’d like to travel.

  • Rebecca

    I think the “should you have one” or the xenophobe or cost arguments have been thoroughly covered.

    I will mention one perk of a passport or passport card is that my home address is NOT on a passport. Thus, I can show it to whomever requires I present an ID and be more confident that no rogue airport personnel will burglarize my home later; a strategy that is much like using a business card or address on your luggage tag. Rubberbanding the loose pages together generally keeps a nosy TSA document checker from thumbing through it because they are “bored”.

  • Dana

    I’m one of the 3/4 of Americans who don’t have a passport. I’m fluent in four languages and keep up on current events worldwide, but I’ve never been outside the US except for one short trip to Canada. I’ve found the administrative hassle of getting a passport is just too much. As for kids under 18 though, I’ve always resented the implication that kids not seeing the world is some kind of failing. World travel is a luxury. Not everyone can afford it. My family couldn’t and we weren’t even that poor.

  • Bryan

    Dana, if you don’t travel outside the USA then you cannot experience the other cultures of the world. It’s as simple as that.  Whilst it’s nice that you are multilingual and continually read world news, it’s like truly knowing the theory behind flying a plane, but you have no pilots licence to take advantage of your skills/knowledge…  Or as most Americans call in sports, the “armchair quarterback” for NFL football.

    I am American living overseas in Oceania. I got my replacement passport in 17 days only from the State Department. So the hassle is not too bad as you speak.  It’s a form to fill out, a new photo, and some money for an item that’s valid for 10 years.  

    I think that most Americans spend too much money on crap to afford to take trips overseas.  Eg. why does a person need a big oversized SUV that gets 10 MPG?  

    I work a full time job here as most Americans do in the USA.  I just minimise my costs, and plan to travel. Not everyone who travels on overseas flights is rich. In fact, most people like me scrounge around for airfare and accommodation deals…

    May I suggest visiting Nepal for an amazing cultural experience?
    cheers,
    Bryan

  • Kathi e Coull

    For the first time in more than 30 years I do not have a current passport. It expired in May 2011. My husband says I’ve taken to twitching and moaning in my sleep. Maybe I’ll just renew it. FYI, I’m not in Mexico anymore.

  • Anonymous

    Just revisiting old topics via keyword searches.

    Just did the same for my kid.  I can’t get off from work to do this on a weekday so weekends were the only option for me to go in person with my wife at a passport acceptance office.  I had several choices (mostly post offices) that can do this on a Saturday.  A lot of municipal offices that perform passport acceptance aren’t open on Saturdays, and post offices are often panned for the way they treat people coming in for passports.  I found an unlikely place on the passport acceptance location list that was open on Saturday, close to home, and wasn’t a post office.  I even read a few reviews about their passport service.  So if I could recommend a place, it’s the UC Berkeley Recreational Sports Facility.  They will perform passport acceptance at their membership window.  I used to spend some time there as a student and went there for a few events.

    http://calbears.berkeley.edu/insidepage.aspx?uid=6b303f6b-773d-46c7-bdba-732736f49785

    There was one person ahead of us in line filling out a blank form.  We filled ours ahead of time using the State Dept’s online entry system that also produces a machine readable matrix code.  They’ll be able to look up the exact information in their databases via the code rather than rely on someone to read potentially messy handwriting.  It was a breeze since we came with everything ready, including his birth certificate, our parental photo IDs (and photocopies of the front and back in accordance with State Dept requirements), and the check made out to the Dept of State.

    I’m looking forward to my kid getting an official photo ID.  I’m thinking most kids that age don’t have their own IDs.

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