<p>The reality is that your kid’s passport belongs to THEM. It isn’t the property of the parents. The KID can request a replacement passport without your permission.</p>
<p>Yes, give your college student THEIR passport.</p>
<p>Also many hostels in the USA want a passport to check in</p>
<p>The passport is not the issue. Having adult conversations with your child about the instability in Mexico is. We stopped taking student groups to Mexico a couple of years ago because of the violence. I did take my children to Cozumel a year ago, but that was only after CAREFUL research about safety and the agreement that we were not leaving the island. (The entire Yucatan Peninsula has been relatively crime free compared to Tijuana, Juarez, Acapulco, etc. Here is a great link and part of the story from this year:
<a href=“https://www.osac.gov/Pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=11971[/url]”>https://www.osac.gov/Pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=11971</a> </p>
<p>2/13/2012
Overall Crime and Safety Situation</p>
<p>“The security environment in Tijuana remains precarious, as the migration of many of the daily shootings and other violent crimes to areas beyond the city center has kept them deceptively out of the media spotlight. For 2011, approximately 509 homicides were recorded in Tijuana, down from 2010’s staggering number of 817 but still well above the homicide rates of 2007 and 2006. The past year stands as the fifth most deadly year in Tijuana’s history.”</p>
<p>OP, you know your child better than anyone else. Don’t you know in your heart whethr she’s likely to lose it or not?</p>
<p>I have three kids…I could have given one of them her passport at the age of 10 and she wouldn’t have lost it. One is 21 and is so disorganized that I may just keep it for him my whole life. The third…only 16 and no way I would give it to her now, but there’s hope for her.</p>
<p>My now almost 22 yr old s was going to take his passport with him to school his soph yr. I discouraged it. He is not the most organized person. He loses/misplaces everything. Did I say everything? Everything. He really didnt need it at that point. This winter he decided he was going to take it b/c he might need it when he started work, so I pulled it out and gave it to him. He promptly left it on my computer station. So I put it away. This spring he came home to surprise us. This time I asked him if he thought it would be a good idea to take it. He agreed. I pulled it out again and handed it to him. Haven’t seen it since. I hope he has it put away safely. I did make a copy of it before he left. Actually I think I’ve scanned and emailed it to him in the past as well, when he “misplaced” his drivers license and student id and needed photo identification. Did I say he loses everything? Everything.</p>
<p>He is about to pack and move after graduation. Not far, but he is moving. Hope he doesnt lose the passport.</p>
<p>I plan to hold on to my son’s passport. You can always overnite if your student was planning on a trip. My son will be going to school close to the Canada border so in theory he might need it but I guess we would plan it by ear afterwards. </p>
<p>If you get a safe box at a bank, they aren’t going to be open on the weekend which is when a student might need it. So I guess some type of lock box attached to the bed would be a possible idea.</p>
<p>My son took his passport to college as he planned to continue flight lessons and needed to prove he was a citizen. Next thing we knew he was in Rocky Point (Mexico) for a long weekend. It was not his last trip. A couple of years later he did misplace the passport before a planned trip, but it had expired and needed to be replaced anyways. I always thought that if he wanted to travel, he should have the responsibility for keeping the passport and if he lost it…oh well. It was a good lesson in learning to plan ahead.</p>
<p>I would not allow my under-18 D. to travel abroad without adults. Then she would not need to have a passport. My D. went to several trips abroad while that young and younger, but all of them were under adult supervision. Nothing was stolen from my D’s room while in college, I do not have anything to say about having passport in college. D. had her credit card with her all the time.</p>
<p>Yes, but keep a copy. Time to begin to let go, she is an adult now.</p>
<p>I’m surprised to read about parents holding on to passports when children attend college near the Canadian border, figuring to overnight-mail a passport “if” the child wants to visit Canada. </p>
<p>From what I see, local university students decide to go on a few hours’ notice…to Toronto for an evening concert, to Niagara Falls just to scream at it. These aren’t pre-planned visits, the way a family marks their calendar to plan a foreign trip.</p>
<p>At first I thought only Buffalo-area students do this, but now I hear that this is common fun all around upstate everywhere…and students drive together 5 hours to cross a border, without any prior thought.</p>
<p>I do see your point however since my freshman cannot take his car to school for that first year, I don’t know how many upperclassmen are taking freshman along on those journey’s. But it has given me something else to discuss with my son when he goes away. I just never really thought about it.</p>
<p>I understand your concern. As other posters have pointed out, Mexico is a far cry from crossing the border into Canada. I crossed the Mexican border countless times as an under 18 year old with and without my parents. As did many California kids. I rarely had a problem. But I had friends physically attacked, robbed, beaten and thrown in jail. None of them were over 18! And it’s gotten much, much worse over the years. </p>
<p>It’s time to have a frank talk with your daughter about the dangers of Mexico, especially in the border towns of Tijuana, Rosarita Beach and Ensenada. Does she speak the language? Has she ever traveled in Mexico? If no to both, I suggest you take her for a trip before she begins school, so she has a good idea of what those towns are like. </p>
<p>Yes, college students can, and do, get into trouble in the U.S. (especially Florida) but Mexico is another level altogether. </p>
<p>Be honest with her and then turn over her passport.</p>
<p>^I went to Mexico probably close to 15 times. I went to resort place that never had any crime. All of the HS and college kids at our resort just 2 months ago were with their parents…too many of them by our taste, have to re-adjust our vacation time. My 22 y o is traveling soon to South America and I will be worrying sick…she is not going for fun by no means, she will be working at the clinics with the group of few other students and MDs.</p>
<p>Love the idea of getting a passpost card if your S or D goes to school near the Canadian border. Much simpler than having the passport at school.</p>
<p>dreaming92:
“I don’t know about in the US, but here in the UK you usually need your passport as proof of citizenship/right to work when going to job interviews.”</p>
<p>In the US a lot of people – the majority, I’d guess – don’t have a passport. They’ve never traveled outside the country and don’t plan to, or they’ve only taken short trips to Canada or Mexico. Other ID mentioned in this thread is used to establish identity, citizenship, or eligibility to work (birth certificate, social security card, etc.). It’s a relatively “unusual” document, so people worry about losing it.</p>
<p>I think the biggest danger to college students ‘visiting’ Mexico (I use the term ‘visiting’ loosely because that’s not what they’re really doing) isn’t related to the violence there - it’s the fact that so many are going to TJ specifically to drink and party. Bad things can happen when young college students, particularly female ones, get drunk - especially in Mexico. In addition to the obvious dangers there’s the added danger of some of them driving back drunk.</p>
<p>Of course the kid doesn’t really need to go to Mexico to get drunk and do stupid things so that discussion needs to take place whether she has the passport or not. Going to TJ to do the drinking/partying only compounds the issues.</p>
<p>Both of my kids took there passports to college. I just got the 3rd his passport so he can take it to college. I buy a locket box to put all there important items into, Such as checks, passports, SS card so they can get a job. My daughter didnt use her until the last year of college. She was 17 like your daughter when she started college. My son goes to college in Buffalo and has used his twice to go to Canada. They are young adults now and have to learn to be responsible. Bad things can happen anywhere.</p>
<p>My d has her passport at college, I actually wanted her to take it, even though she is not near a border. She is over 1000 miles from home and will usually need to fly when she comes back on breaks.</p>
<p>I have heard too many stories about students attending school out of state, losing their drivers liscense and not being able to fly home (no id) and not being able to get the new id (out of state). I told D to take her passport and keep it in a different spot than her liscense. That way if she lost her licsense she would still have ID to fly home.</p>
<p>Mets#1-
Freshman year I got my DS a lockbox for his checkbook, etc. He promptly lost the key. His solution was to drop it from the top of the lofted bed. Popped right open, but box was a goner. </p>
<p>Sophomore year I bought a more sturdy box that had both a key and combination lock so he could get in if he lost the key. The box returned home that following summer, unopened. Ever. I had the receipt so returned it to the store. </p>
<p>No more lock box purchase for me. He moved off campus Junior year. No clue where he put his stuff. But the passport did not go with him to school until a month or so ago. Now its his problem if he loses it.</p>
<p>I’d love to do a “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” thing on this one—If you give your kid his passport…</p>