A half-rant about passports

Ok, this is just a half-rant. A mini-rant. A rantlet, one might say.

Let me start off with this. I LOVE MY PASSPORTS. I love them. I travel a lot, and for the longest time I didn't have a driver's license, so I needed my passports for ID purposes. I definitely do mean passportS because I have two of them - dual nationality, Canadian and British.

So this is where my rantlet starts. Two passports mean two expenses, to be shelled out at various points during a decade. But it gets better! My UK passport is valid for 10 years, while my Canadian one is valid for only 5 years.

But wait, there's more! Because of the rules about having to have 6 months available on a passport from the end of a foreign travel visit, I lose 1/20th of my UK passport costs, and a massive 1/10th of my Canadian passport cost. Essentially down the drain.

Oh, you think that's it? Nope. Because my Canadian passport was set to expire in August. I have two holidays booked between now and then. Meaning, I had to renew my passport two weeks ago. Less than four months from the new 10-year epassports being available. Oh woe is me! I now have to go another 4.5 years with a short-term passport. Wasting another 1/10th of the cost. Actually, even more, since the cost of the new 10-year epassports per year is less than the current passports.

I happen to be somewhat of a passport aficionado, having stared at different ones all day long during my role at the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. I have seen 89 different country passports (yes, I counted). I know which countries have strict rules regarding photos, and which don't (UK passports, for example, tend to be rather poor, whereas Canadians have to have special passport photographers take their photos). I've seen fakes, I've seen expired visas, I've seen mistakes. I've seen it all.

But until the day where a 5-year passport actually lasts 5.5 years, and a 10 year passport lasts 10.5 years, without a change in base price, this mini-rant of mine will continue.


***update***
A few close friends have commented to me that the "6-month rule" doesn't actually apply to many places; it depends on the country you're entering, but also, it seems, on the method of transportation you're using. An airline may require it, even if the country being entered doesn't.

So two options:
1- check before you go with both the country and the airline/cruise/bus company
2- better safe than sorry, renew with 6-months to go; this may save time and money in the long run, even if it induces mini-rants in people like me!

Tip #8 - Park your car... for good

I recently got my driver’s license from the UK. On my arrival back in Canada, my Mum gave me a car – a yellow convertible no less! It’s still in its box,  and it's only an inch and a half long, but the sentiment was nice.

There’s a point here, I swear. The reason I got my driver’s license was not to get a car, but to allow myself to drive or rent one when necessary. Owning a car is, put simply, expensive and unnecessary unless a) you require one for your job (it’s part of your contract or serves a useful, tax deductible business purpose), b) you live in the absolute middle of nowhere (like my Mum who is half an hour’s drive from the nearest store, and a 45 minute’s drive from the nearest bus into town), or c) you or a family member have severe mobility issues which make other modes of transportation extremely difficult.

If you don't fall under any of the above categories, the costs of running a vehicle are prohibitive. Purchasing the car in the first place aside, the monthly costs of insurance, taxes and gas, let alone emergency maintenance fees and two sets of tires for people in cold weather regions can mount exponentially. And what’s the point when there are other ways to get from A to B?