New travel document requirements for USA citizens

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From:
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 6:55 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: Re: [IP] New travel document requirements for USA citizens

For IP... pls snip my name.

As a USG employee, I can give a little background on the passport issue.

The price primarily changed because Congress freaked when they found
that processing offices (in the U.S., usually the Post Office) charged
a little more than it cost to process the passports.  So State reduced
that fee, but increased the security fee.  The security involves all
those things that you didn't mention -- the huge amounts of data
crunching that makes sure that you're really an American, not a
terrorist, not selling your passport, and not owing child support,
among other things.  The biggest benefit of that is that it's only a
little bit more, but it's a nice round number.  And, truly... you're
traveling abroad.  You're probably buying a plane ticket.  You really
can't afford $10 per year? ($100 for a 10-year passport.)

The Passport Card goes under less scrutiny -- hence the lesser charge
-- and is much cheaper to produce.  Does it make sense?  Probably not
if you're from Ohio, going to Toronto for vacation this summer -- you
could use the passport on your next trip abroad.  (Since it isn't just
DHS that requires them -- every other country outside of North America
will want to see it too.)  But if you live on the Maine or Montana
border?  Perhaps it does.

As for the Australian model.. I've used it before, and it works great.
 It's a hell of a lot easier than traveling to Ethiopia, where you get
a visa at the airport; or China or India, where you have to wait for
an actual visa foil.

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