Kammekor wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 7:50 am

Kenr wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 12:16 am And in my travels through Thailand and Mexico I have never carried my passport with me other than when I exchanged money.

Great you have great trust in your government.

For me, I don't want my passport to carry it around. I never carry it around, it stays in the safe. But I want instant access to my passport in case I need it when I am abroad. That's why I always use express services, like @PSD kiwi mentioned. I don't want my passport out of sight.

When a government promises 10 working days max from Cambodia I tend to question if it's true. Due to delayed applications (COVID) the waiting time for a passport is at least six weeks now in my country. If your government somehow messes up and ten days turn into a longer period, or you unexpectedly must travel during those 10 days, you're f@cked. I don't like to run those risks which are beyond my own control.

But each his own. Maybe I'm just a control freak, but I tend to be aware I am no longer at home, but in Cambodia, and without my passport there's no way out.

Dude, it has nothing to do with whether I have trust in the government or not, the reality is that it’s not an option, the old passport needs to be sent in so a new one can be processed. I could sit here and bitch and complain about it all I want, it’s not going to change anything and I’m not going to get stressed out over something I have no control of.

As far as the timing, you leave the passport at the Embassy and you can pick it up at the Embassy after it has been processed. There might be some Americans on here who give their own experience on this because I haven’t had the pleasure of dealing with it yet.

I’m guessing you want me to say how fucked up it is and the US sucks by making me do it this way and they can go fuck themselves because they don’t care about their citizens living overseas, but unfortunately I can’t do that at this time.

Edit: Regardless if you have your old passport or not, you cannot use it for travel after you have submitted a request for a new one.

Freightdog wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 8:30 am Consider- the visa in your passport is deemed the property of the issuing government, while the passport it is held in is the property of your own government.
Reading Doc’s query in the first post, I would say that no agency has the right to dismember a complete passport. Maybe they can destroy a damaged passport, which is no longer a controlled document, for want of a better term.

The US doesn’t dismember the passport. My last passport that expired had two (2) holes punched on the bottom of the cover and the bio page of the passport, nothing else touched.

Kammekor wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 9:15 am

Kenr wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 8:34 am

Kammekor wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 7:50 am

Kenr wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 12:16 am And in my travels through Thailand and Mexico I have never carried my passport with me other than when I exchanged money.

Great you have great trust in your government.

For me, I don't want my passport to carry it around. I never carry it around, it stays in the safe. But I want instant access to my passport in case I need it when I am abroad. That's why I always use express services, like @PSD kiwi mentioned. I don't want my passport out of sight.

When a government promises 10 working days max from Cambodia I tend to question if it's true. Due to delayed applications (COVID) the waiting time for a passport is at least six weeks now in my country. If your government somehow messes up and ten days turn into a longer period, or you unexpectedly must travel during those 10 days, you're f@cked. I don't like to run those risks which are beyond my own control.

But each his own. Maybe I'm just a control freak, but I tend to be aware I am no longer at home, but in Cambodia, and without my passport there's no way out.

Dude, it has nothing to do with whether I have trust in the government or not, the reality is that it’s not an option, the old passport needs to be sent in so a new one can be processed. I could sit here and bitch and complain about it all I want, it’s not going to change anything and I’m not going to get stressed out over something I have no control of.

As far as the timing, you leave the passport at the Embassy and you can pick it up at the Embassy after it has been processed. There might be some Americans on here who give their own experience on this because I haven’t had the pleasure of dealing with it yet.

I’m guessing you want me to say how fucked up it is and the US sucks by making me do it this way and they can go fuck themselves because they don’t care about their citizens living overseas, but unfortunately I can’t do that at this time.

You guessed wrong, I don't want to make you say anything.

The fact this is the way they organized doesn't make it right. As @PSD-Kiwi said, it's ridiculous to leave citizens abroad without a passport. But if it's the only way, then you have to deal with it, Still sucks though. IMHO, and opens a can of potential problems which could have easily been avoided by a smarter procedure. But hey, governments often design procedures for their own convenience, not yours or mine.

Kenr wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 8:34 am As far as the timing, you leave the passport at the Embassy and you can pick it up at the Embassy after it has been processed. There might be some Americans on here who give their own experience on this because I haven’t had the pleasure of dealing with it yet.

Another silly procedure. Why does the passport have to sit at the embassy during the procedure? They could simply require you to bring it in when you collect the new one, and activate / deactivate on the spot.

I doubt if they hang on to it, I’m sure they send it back to the United States to the Department of State, the agency that produces the passport, along with the application. They are the ones that take the old passport out of service and produce a new one.

And maybe it’s a good thing. Like you stated previously, what would happen if you needed your passport for emergency travel while you were in the process of getting a new one, but you can’t use the old one, that keeps you from screwing up. Your passport is voided when you apply for a new passport, and our passport number from the US changed every time.

I hadn’t flown on Singapore Airlines since my old passport, probably around 2014 or so. When I logged into my Singapore account to fly with them this November, my new passport number was already in there. I was kind of shocked when I seen that, all my info was updated for my new passport even though i hadn’t used them since I renewed my passport. So if I were to have traveled under my old passport while my new one was processed, I would be fucked, because my old passport would be no good trying to get back to where I was coming from.

Kammekor wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 10:15 am

Kenr wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 9:39 am
I doubt if they hang on to it, I’m sure they send it back to the United States to the Department of State, the agency that produces the passport, along with the application. They are the ones that take the old passport out of service and produce a new one.

And maybe it’s a good thing. Like you stated previously, what would happen if you needed your passport for emergency travel while you were in the process of getting a new one, but you can’t use the old one, that keeps you from screwing up. Your passport is voided when you apply for a new passport, and our passport number from the US changed every time.

I don't see the need for that. They have to give your old passport back anyway, because it might contain visa and, more important, it might contain your entry stamp in the country. @Doc67 - make sure they don't damage that one when they physically 'cancel' your old passport.
So why send it back and forth?

Why not cancel the old passport and activate the new one when you receive the new one? Again, these kind of procedures open the possibility of all kinds of trouble. Foreign Affairs should be busy every day to smooth things up and avoid as much trouble as possible, instead of creating potential problems.

Kenr wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 9:39 am I hadn’t flown on Singapore Airlines since my old passport, probably around 2014 or so. When I logged into my Singapore account to fly with them this November, my new passport number was already in there. I was kind of shocked when I seen that, all my info was updated for my new passport even though i hadn’t used them since I renewed my passport. So if I were to have traveled under my old passport while my new one was processed, I would be fucked, because my old passport would be no good trying to get back to where I was coming from.

That's simply scary. A company having access to this kind of personal information by default. Convenient maybe, but scary.

The new one is activated on the same date that it is produced, the date indicated on the new passport, not the date you received it. I can’t speak for every country, but by looking at the websites that produce their passports it will probably say if one can use their old passport while a new one is being processed or not.

As far as Singapore Airlines having my updated info, it’s all good, I’m on their frequent flyer program. I’m sure all countries share passport information for their citizens with each other and the airlines to insure no fake or invalid passports are being used.

Freightdog wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 10:48 am @Kenr
Surely, that’s just a convenience measure, regarding your Singapore Airlines, account details? The airline only need to ensure that you have valid travel documents, not specific travel documents, when checking in. And if they get it

My emirates, Singapore, etc profiles all different passport details attached. I might book a ticket intending to travel on the UK passport, and then need to present my Irish passport.

You are probably right. It didn’t do it on Eva, but then again I had flown with them many times before but wasn’t part of their miles program until I got my new passport, so I had to manually input everything.

I know I’m speculating on a lot of this, which I usually don’t do. I just don’t think it’s a big deal that they take my old passport while applying for a new one. Do I wish they didn’t do it that way? I can wish in one hand and shit in the other, it wouldn’t make a difference. I will
be making the choice to go over to another country, so I have to live by that countries rules as well as the way my home country conducts business. It’s not my passport, it belongs to the government of United States of America, LOL.

Freightdog wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 11:15 am

Kenr wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 11:03 am

Freightdog wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 10:48 am @Kenr
Surely, that’s just a convenience measure, regarding your Singapore Airlines, account details? The airline only need to ensure that you have valid travel documents, not specific travel documents, when checking in. And if they get it

My emirates, Singapore, etc profiles all different passport details attached. I might book a ticket intending to travel on the UK passport, and then need to present my Irish passport.

You are probably right. It didn’t do it on Eva, but then again I had flown with them many times before but wasn’t part of their miles program until I got my new passport, so I had to manually input everything.

I know I’m speculating on a lot of this, which I usually don’t do. I just don’t think it’s a big deal that they take my old passport while applying for a new one. Do I wish they didn’t do it that way? I can wish in one hand and shit in the other, it wouldn’t make a difference. I will
be making the choice to go over to another country, so I have to live by that countries rules as well as the way my home country conducts business. It’s not my passport, it belongs to the government of United States of America, LOL.

Indeed. And in the interest of being completely nosy, and for the purposes of discussion only; I took a look at the US government pages on the subject.

I wonder if some of this US case debate is related to the brevity of the notes, rather than what might be found in the expanded guidelines. The state website also identifies that consulates in different countries may have different local procedures. That’s always fun, having to work out the if A, do B, but if not, don’t. Do C instead permutations.

Yes. I know of two (2) consulates here in Houston, Vietnam and Thailand, that only do limited services. I took a friend to the Vietnam consulate earlier this year so she could get a visa to visit her family. They wound up giving her a 5-year visa exempt visa, on-site. There were a few Americans in there getting their visa.

The Thai consulate here doesn’t do shit, LOL. Everything has to go through their Embassy in Washington. The consulate in L.A. provides some services, but not in Houston.