I guess it was inevitable

[twilight33]

.. but it sounds like soon we'll need to get a passport for Kieran to go to Canada. No more spur-of-the-moment 'Hey! Let's go to Tijuana!' trips from San Diego either. Oh wait, I haven't done those for some time & I wouldn't haul Kieran down there...

Did I mention that on our recent trip that the Canadian border patrol didn't even look at our papers or the ones of the cars ahead of us? The US agent was almost as scarily lax, he looked at our passports & Kieran's birth certificate but asked maybe 2 questions. He also had a Canadian accent. Hmm.

We already have our (god-awful) passports from Europe a few years back, but it seems ridiculous to get one for a 2 year old who isn't going on an international flight anytime soon. Maybe we'll go off to Europe in 2008 to make the application process worth it.

Comments

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

You might want to get one for him soon anyway; in the next few years they'll be changing the passports to include RFID tags with biometric data, which might be a little more privacy-intrusive than you'd like to get. It's also nice to have one just in case, since there are (anecdotally speaking) more and more scary paper-verifying border guards all the time. Plus it trumps any other ID you might need, since it's both photo ID and proof of citizenship (though for Kieran the photo ID part would only last a few years ;)).

[twilight33]

I heard about the tags in passports, but the addition of biometrics crap to them is new to me. Then again, we'd have to get a new passport for him in 2010 even if we got a non-bugged $84 one now. Bastards.

Little kids don't need photo ID (for now); the one time the border guard clearly read our names/states of birth on his birth certificate and matched our passport data was before he was a year old. Now Kieran always waves & says 'hi!' to them, so I guess they think an abducted child wouldn't be so happy? ;)

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

Which is good, you know, since he looks so little like you. ;)

[spaceling.livejournal.com]

the last time I went to Victoria, it was discovered that my much aged birth certificate is actually a photocopy, so I need to order a new official one. Which requires a notarized application. Once I have that, I will then have to explain to a passport office why my name is not the same as that on my birth certificate, without the benefit of legal name change paperwork.

Which is to say, getting a passport is going to be a pain in the rear for me.

[twilight33]

Oy, good luck with that :( We have notaries up the wazoo at work, hopefully that's the case for you too?

I think I'm really glad we got our passports pre-9/11. I'll drop the tickets in the mail tomorrow!

[spaceling.livejournal.com]

No notaries here, but I know one personally, and if that fails, my bank should have one.