<p>Was talking to my mother about our upcoming college visit trips - she claims my high school age kids absolutely must have their passports renewed for the trip. What say you?</p>
<p>Thats for airport checkin. Passport or valid photo government ID is recommended if you dont want delay at the airport.</p>
<p>My kids have never used passports for travel within the US. They use photo IDs…do your teens have either a driver’s permit or license? That’s what mine have used. They do need the photo ID. I think if they don’t have these, then a passport is another form of a photo ID they could use but is not the one they HAVE to use. My kids have flown alone quite a bit.</p>
<p>If they are under 18, they’re not <em>supposed</em> to need photo ID if they’re traveling with you (they will need something if traveling alone), but in my experience (especially since my kids were extremely tall by age 15), it will be troublesome at some airports if they don’t have a photo ID. If they have a driver’s license or government-issued photo ID card (which they can get here before they can drive) it’s fine, or even a school photo ID card is usually accepted. If you were going to renew their passports anyway, it might be worthwhile to do so, otherwise some other photo ID is acceptable and reduces hassle.</p>
<p>(Edit: I just checked the TSA website and could find no specific reference to ID requirements for children, though, so maybe everything I know is wrong. 
)</p>
<p>technically they don’t need it ( not even to go to Canada)
but realistically- I think it would make things go smoother because photo IDs vary and might require more scrutiny
oh wait- I saw you are going with them
Never mind- they don’t need it.</p>
<p>They don’t need passports. Think about it: Most people in the US don’t have passports. </p>
<p>In fact, depending on their age, they don’t need anything. However, it can help to have a driver’s license.</p>
<p>I personally would not bring my passport to travel around the US because it’s too easy to lose something like that and it’s a pain and expensive to replace it (BTDT). I use my driver’s license as photo ID.</p>
<p>While children do not need passports to travel within the U.S. and quite a few other countries as well, increasingly local authorities are using passports to check identity because of concerns over child abduction. As other posters have mentioned, it is a good idea to have up-to-date photo id. As a preventive measure to avoid potential problems you might want to photocopy the id pages on the passports while you are traveling within the U.S. just to avoid possible hassles. Hopefully, you won’t need it. </p>
<p><a href=“U.S. Passports”>U.S. Passports;
<p>Here is what happens, you go through security, and if your child is almost of college age, you could have a delay. They match up IDs with boarding passes, and if you don’t have SOMETHING easy to check, you could get pulled aside</p>
<p>I mean, many 20 year olds look like they are 17, so they want to check everybody that its even POSSIBLE they could be of age</p>
<p>I find it kind of sad that most Americans don’t have passports…the world is an amzaing place, and if travel is even possible financially, they should visit it</p>
<p>And a 17 year old should have some sort of ID…how do they get into those R rated movies?</p>
<p>CGM makes excellent points. Some form of photo ID makes your life a lot easier.</p>
<p>I often travel with my passport because it’s easier (for me) to get in and out of my bag than my license. I either end up rifling through my wallet for it or dropping it. </p>
<p>As for Americans not having passports - unless you go overseas, you don’t need one. If you’re in Europe, you often need a passport just to stay at a hotel; if you travel a few hundred miles in any direction, you’re in a foreign country.</p>
<p>Not to take over the thread, but I’m going to Mexico soon and know that I need either a driver’s license + birth certificate or a passport. I think. Taking the passport because it just makes life easier. (Before 9/11, I went to Mexico with a driver’s license. Then again, I don’t look like an illegal. Which, to be honest, is some of the issue on the Mexican border.)</p>
<p>
there was talk after 9/11 about changing this to require a passport for travel to Mexico. Not sure what came of it since, like you, I have a passport (and haven’t been to Mexico since 9/11). But anyone planning to go there with driver’s license + birth certificate because that has been sufficient in the past should check.</p>
<p>Americans will soon need a passport when travelling to Canada, too. As of Jan. 1 of next year, if you’re travelling by air or sea, it will be required. The following year will require it of all land travellers, as well. It’s not to get INTO Canada, but to get back into the U.S. Canada has been trying to fight this for months but it looks like it will be to no avail.</p>
<p>My H has a pretty common first and last name, and when he travels with his state ID, we almost always have to go to the counter and they have to check him out, when we travel internally with his Passport, we go right through…it seems someone with a similar name is flagged, and it pops up when his state ID is used, but when he shows his passports, all is okayed.</p>
<p>My guess is pretty soon a passport will needed for Mexico and Canada travel- gee what the poster above me said, beat me to it!!!</p>
<p>SOmething else to consider, when in college, a student might suddenly get interested in studying in another country, travel, etc. And to get a passport NOW while at home will be much easier to get. They last ten years, and if an opportunity comes up, it can take up to two months (it is usually less) so why not be ready</p>
<p>In my town, many post offices do the paper work, but appontments need to be made. The Passport offices are really only for “emergency” needs, say withing two weeks, and you would need proof of that…say, a death in the family, etc</p>
<p>SO my recommendation is to get one for a college student now before they leave, or when they are in town, etc.</p>
<p>CGM: right again.</p>
<p>I once read advice that said that, if working in a law firm over the summer, to bring a passport. There’s the chance that someone might need a young associate in a foreign office for a deposition.</p>
<p>More than that… if you are in college within driving distance of Canada & Mexico, I can guarantee that your friends will make a road trip to those mythical lands where you can get a margarita at age 18. :)</p>
<p>it’s not required, but might as well do it. it’s always good to have ID available</p>
<p>Even though there is no law or requirment, there are certainly enough good reasons to warrant keeping the whole family’s valid U.S. passports renewed and travel ready. During the Reagan administration the idea of a national id card was discussed and discarded - the way things are going now, pretty soon we all might have one in addition to a passport.</p>
<p><a href=“http://news.com.com/House+approves+electronic+ID+cards/2100-1028_3-5571898.html[/url]”>http://news.com.com/House+approves+electronic+ID+cards/2100-1028_3-5571898.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“IT news, careers, business technology, reviews | Computerworld”>IT news, careers, business technology, reviews | Computerworld;
<p>Aries, you’ll be fine for Mexico, but your passport is easier as they stamp your entry in the passport. When leaving the country, they will cancel your entry after receiving proof of the payment of the entry fees. </p>
<p>One small thing worth mentioning: a mother traveling with children to Mexico will NOT be allowed to board a plane without a notarized permission from the father. We learned this the hard way! On the other hand, this does not seem to apply to dads traveling with the children. </p>
<p>Discrimination case, Aries?</p>
<p>same thing in Canada
I took my(then) 15 year old to Canada during spring break recently & I got MAJOR grief, not only because we didn’t have a passport ( although we had birth certificates and photo ID) but because I didn’t have a notarized letter from her dad saying I could take her on a spring break trip. ( they didnt however screen our baggage which I thought was interesting, as the US customs made me start up my laptop)
We had taken the bus up tothe border and she was grumbly the whole way. Since the bus was half empty, she wasn’t even sitting with me. When we went to customs, and the official was **off that I didn’t have the letter, he repeatedly told her that she could talk to him away from me, and asked her several times who I was and our relationship.
The whole time she was * glaring at me, I didn’t know if she was going to decide to say " I dont know who the hell this woman is, get her away from me!"</p>
<p>Photo Id, yes. Passport, no. When we were in Maine a couple of weeks ago we decided to go on a whale watching trip. The person at the counter asked the age of everyone in the group and said that everyone over 18 had to show a picture id. One of the people in our group had not brought his wallet with him - doesn’t drive, had his Dad for money, but was 19 years old. The father was able to convince the counter person that he really wasn’t a terrorist and would not be swimming to Canada. She told him quietly to just say he was 17 at the entrance and he would not be asked for id. On the same vacation my duaghter (who is 21) was almost given a discount available to kids under 16. I don’t know how officials make their decisions on who to come down on and demand id because they think they are older and who to let slide because they are young looking.</p>
<p>My daughters are 17 and 15, and like most kids today, look older. They traveled in Europe years ago, but their child passports expired already. I got my 17 year old a new passport for her Europe trip two summers ago (and paid extra to get it quickly) and the teacher leading her tour group had ALL the kids passports in her backpack (dumb!) and her backpack was stolen from beneath her feet at a cafe! So all the kids had to make an emergency detour to the U.S. embassy and got new, temporary passports that were only good for a year. </p>
<p>They both have school photo ID. My older daughter will have a driver’s license. Once she turns 18, the passport is good for much longer, correct? 10 years? Maybe we should get her one as soon as she turns 18. My younger daughter wants to go do one of those AFS or YFU semesters in two years, so she’ll need one then anyway.</p>