who has the shank, I need it!

[Cheesecake]

A friend of mine is whining on FB about long lines at the passport office and the fact that she'll have to go for a walk-in appt (6 hours a day mo-fri, but there might be lines) instead of getting an appointment (first available appointment is 2 weeks from now).

She needs to renew her passport as it expires in less than 3 weeks. She also plans to go on vacation in 2.5 weeks. She knew she had to renew, but she refuses to renew it any sooner than the week it expires, because she doesn't want to give the government "even more money" for "basically an ID card".

[allibally]

What an idiot.

[crimsonandclover]

Oh man... where's TB's raised eyebrow emoticon when you need it?

So by putting the renewal off for a while and causing herself more problems because she can't schedule an appointment, she's sticking it to the government how?

[Deleted]

What a fox

[americaninoz]

Wow that's just idiotic

[clogged]

May 23, 2012 17:12:50 GMT -5 Cheesecake said:

She refuses to renew it any sooner than the week it expires, because she doesn't want to give the government "even more money" for "basically an ID card".

OMG
SHE IS AWESOME

She has achieved a whole new level of cheapness, previously unheard of.

[Cheesecake]

She didn't respond to my 'but most countries you need a passport for require it to be valid for at least 6 more months'.

The cheapness is weird though, because the european ID card which she can also get, is about a quarter of the price of a passport. Also, she has a driver license, which is ID as well. So her 'basically an ID card' is total bullshit.

If you choose to vacation in fun countries, you need a valid passport, it's just part of the cost of traveling, like a plane ticket, or gas for your car, or GASP, spf appropriate for the climate you're in.

But I guess I'm the weird one, for always wanting my passport to be valid in case I suddenly have to, or want to, travel...

[clogged]

Nope. You aren't alone. I check my passport frequently to make sure I am never within that 6 month gap.

Doesn't the Dutch gov't add your extra time to the passport? Like if you have 7 months, your renewal expires in whatever-years-and-7-months? I assume she's Dutch.

[Cheesecake]

Nope, when you renew it's just 5 years from the day you issue it, so basically it's actually only truly valid for 4.5 years I guess. Unless you only use it for ID in which case you're a double idiot.

I guess it is different for people who have all their friends and family in a 10 mile radius and do 1 exciting faraway vacation every 10 years, and stay within the EU every other vacation. They just don't realize the necessity of an up-to-date passport.

[clogged]

A girl has to be prepared in case she wins the lottery.

[clickerish]

I consider it a matter of pride that my passport is always up to date. I'm pretty sure my parents taught me that as a child since everywhere we went, my parents would say "And here is YOUR passport. See your pictures? It expires in two years." Then we would carry our own passport about five feet to check in. We were very proud of the passports. My parents were so bizarre.

[Cheesecake]

I recall when I got my second passport (at age 8 or so) I had thought up a signature (and my signutare to date is very close to what it was then, just waaaaay less legible/neat) and I got relaly pissed off at the passport office lady who told me, when I signed my new passport, "Wow, that's really cool, that looks almost like a real signature". I was ready to strangle her. It WAS a real signature.

But yeah, my passport has always been up to date. One time, in the middle of the year with no travel plans, I couldn't find my passport anywhere and I actually reported it missing and got a new one. Funny thing was that everyone (police, pp office and such) kept asking me when I was traveling. My answer, "well I don't know, that's why I need to make sure I have a valid one."