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To be hyper-technical, you don't need a passport to leave the country. You need a passport to enter (the US or any other country, to my knowledge).
You don't even need a passport to reenter the US if you can prove your identity/citizenship another way, though this process will be painful and they may even fine you if you managed to leave without a passport (as opposed to just losing your passport while outside of the country). As a matter of course, however, if you're flying out of the country on commercial air, you're not going to be allowed on the plane if you don't produce a valid passport.
$130 for a passport, $30 for a passport 'card,' and $160 for both. Validity 10 years.
A US passport is (for now) the best form of identification you can have. Even at $130, for ID only, that's less than an ID card (over the 10 yrs).
I probably don't have any issue with a state issuing free ID cards, but these documents cost money, which gets back to my original point. They cost money to produce, especially the passport, which has specific security paper so they cannot be duplicated (forged).
To be hyper-technical, you don't need a passport to leave the country. You need a passport to enter (the US or any other country, to my knowledge).
There is at least one (under normal circumstances/non temporary closure/no COVID restrictions) exception....Peace Arch Provincial Park (British Columbia)/Peace Arch Historical State Park (Washington state, USA), which the roadbeds of I-5 and BC-99 go through. When under normal circumstances, people can walk around on both sides of the border and back to their cars when they have finished enjoying the parks. The nearby parking lots in both countries are closely monitored. On the U.S. side there used to also be physical monitoring by personnel sitting in car in the parking lot on the U.S. side. It looks as though there may now be an additional building in that spot as well.
Just wondering, but why are passports not free? With all the money the federal government rakes in, they want more to get a passport to leave the country if you needed to. It's almost like it's a mafia and you need to pay an extortion fee to get out.
Are you serious? Replace the word "passport" in your question with anything else and you'll have your answer.
$130 for a passport, $30 for a passport 'card,' and $160 for both. Validity 10 years.
A US passport is (for now) the best form of identification you can have. Even at $130, for ID only, that's less than an ID card (over the 10 yrs).
I probably don't have any issue with a state issuing free ID cards, but these documents cost money, which gets back to my original point. They cost money to produce, especially the passport, which has specific security paper so they cannot be duplicated (forged).
I got mine in 2015. It was $125 then. Guess it went up a few bucks.
But really? All that's going on in the world and a small fee for a passport is what grinds your gears?
$130 for a passport, $30 for a passport 'card,' and $160 for both. Validity 10 years.
A US passport is (for now) the best form of identification you can have. Even at $130, for ID only, that's less than an ID card (over the 10 yrs).
I probably don't have any issue with a state issuing free ID cards, but these documents cost money, which gets back to my original point. They cost money to produce, especially the passport, which has specific security paper so they cannot be duplicated (forged).
Bolded the above, not to complain at all about the passport fee, but only to point out that DLs/IDs in some states (perhaps not where you are/Vermont) cost less than $130 over a 10 year period.
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