Tamnan kon e-San raided. Friday 14 July

[Alexx]

Sometimes they will accept a photocopy and other times they won't. There's no consistency with law enforcement in Thailand whatsoever, that's just one example.

[reader]

US citizens may apply for a passport card issued by the Dept. of State.

 

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/information/card.html

 

This is how the State Dept. describes the card:

 

"The passport book and passport card are both U.S. passports. If issued for the full validity, they are both proof of your U.S. citizenship and identity."

 

There's additional information on the Wikipedia site:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Passport_Card

 

 

[vinapu]

US citizens may apply for a passport card issued by the Dept. of State.

 

very handy  but I wouldn't risk flying all the way from say St.Olaf , MN to Thailand with just the Card leaving passport at home but perhaps in the future it's how our passports will look like.

 

I like an idea but what about all governments ?

[reader]

I should have stressed that the card is not valid for international air travel.  The advantage I see that the card has over carrying a copy of passport when out and about is that it's issued by the State Dept. for ID purposes.

 

The passport card can be used fro entering the United States at land border crossings and sea ports-of-entry from:

• Canada
• Mexico
• The Caribbean
• Bermuda

Regarding other governments, Wikipedia reports that "The card is manufactured by L-1 Identity Solutions.^[5]National identity cards with similar utility are common inside the European Union countries for both national and international use.

 

Although I don't have a card, I plan to get one when I next renew passport.

[steveboy]

Thank you Reader.  I didn't know that this passport card existed.

 

I will gladly pay the $30 to get the card, and bring it in addition to my passport book.  It beats carrying a folded copy in the wallet.

 

The card and book have independent numbers, expiration dates, and can be had, renewed independently.

[steveboy]

very handy  but I wouldn't risk flying all the way from say St.Olaf , MN to Thailand with just the Card leaving passport at home but perhaps in the future it's how our passports will look like.

 

You cannot fly internationally with the card alone.  I assume this is because the card has no place to hold visas and the entry/exit stamping at the borders.

[Alexx]

Having some kind of original ID document such as the passport card or a DL, plus photocopies of the relevant passport pages (including the Thai stamps) is certainly more convincing than just carrying photocopies. Sounds like a reasonable middle path to me.

[vinapu]

You cannot fly internationally with the card alone.  I assume this is because the card has no place to hold visas and the entry/exit stamping at the borders.

in time , thanks to technology I can see this is how passports will look like . After all visas and entry/exit dates can be stored electronically on it the same way our money is stored in our debit cards.

 

But this will need great degree of international co-operation, path is already cleared with biometric passport readers.