I recently took a look at the price of passports in the U.S.A. I did this, b/c I was interested in going to Germany (possibly learning German while there). They're $130 for a new passport. At the moment I can't afford that and neither can a lot of people I know (especially larger families). So, I put in a petition with the whitehouse to lower the price of passports. My reasoning was that it would promote diplomacy and allow individuals to educate themselves in the world around them, without restricting them even more than they already are. Before the whitehouse will take a look at it, I have to get 25,000 signatures from U.S. citizens. I was wondering if it would be OK to post a link in this thread. To a lesser extent, I was also wondering what you guys thought about it.

I looked it up and was surprised to learn that it costs £77-50 about $120 for a UK passport - so not too dissimiliar to the US cost.

Despite being in the EU, UK citizens still need a UK passport even to hop over to France.

Apparently, the French may not bother to check your passport entering the country, but you need it to get back into England.

I believe continental Europeans can travel around within Europe just on a ID card, but in England we don't have those.

How long is the validity period of a passport in the US/UK? An Austrian passport is valid for ten years and costs 75.90 EUR (= 99.95 USD or 63.66 GBP).

However I guess that in the US and UK there are more people who don’t have/need a passport than in a smaller country like Austria (also we need it even for some travels within the country, as the quickest east-west route through the country passes through Germany).

A passport for individuals 16+ lasts for 10 years, while a passport for individuals 15- lasts for 5. I can see how $100 over 10 years would add up to $10 a year but if you're just wanting to go one time, then $130 kind of makes you double check your desires. The fees infringe on people's freedoms when they do this because not only does it require them to pay to travel, but it also requires them to pay to have the right to travel.

I agree with your reasoning and it reminds me of a german news article I read a week or two ago, where a scientist claimed that the old times of the 70s and 80s are over and youngsters are getting used to not being able to travel the world as freely as their parents did.

So we have the Internet to easily get and keep in touch around the world, and global roaming on our mobile phones, and stay at home, because the political landscape has supposedly become more complicated. What a shame.

mschmitt:I agree with your reasoning and it reminds me of a german news article I read a week or two ago, where a scientist claimed that the old times of the 70s and 80s are over and youngsters are getting used to not being able to travel the world as freely as their parents did.

So we have the Internet to easily get and keep in touch around the world, and global roaming on our mobile phones, and stay at home, because the political landscape has supposedly become more complicated. What a shame.

Well, it's just so expensive. I mean, if I wanted to go to Europe for the weekend, I have to pay what ever company takes me there. I have to pay the government for the right to go there and then I have to postpone my plans until I get documents which say my government gives me the right to leave it's shores. I don't mind the waiting part but I should have the right to leave when ever I feel like it and not have to pay out the nose to be able to do so. Anyway, passport or not, I shouldn't have to pay but a few bucks to get clearance to leave my country. Well, that's my rant for today. I may sound like a hippie but there are just some things which aren't right.

I believe these threads should be about Esperanto, even if passport fees might seem excessive.

No, this forum isn't the place for a political petition. But if you wanted to write your message in Esperanto and post a petition link in the "viewpoints" forum, I'm sure that would be fine.

If the $130 passport fee is a financial hardship for you, then you probably can't afford to travel outside of North America.

I hate to put it this way but the passport fee is a drop in the bucket compared to the $800 or so that your plane ticket to Germany will cost, plus the cost of your food and lodging for your time abroad. Not to mention the money you'd have to lay out if something were to go wrong while you're abroad! An unexpected taxi ride to an airport, an unexpected night in a hotel, these could easily cost more than $100.

I shouldn't have to pay but a few bucks to get clearance to leave my country.

It's not clearance to leave your country. There's no US immigration checkpoint on leaving the country, only on returning. Airlines only check your passport when you leave the country because they don't want to bear the cost of flying you back if you're refused entry at your destination.

Another country may deny you entry if they think something seems suspicious about you. For example, if you say you're there for tourism, but the border official suspects that you intend to stay and work illegally. Sometimes they just stamp your passport but sometimes they ask you questions to see what you say. On one visit to the UK with my American passport, for example, they asked why I was coming, and I said for a family visit. They wanted to know my relatives' relationship to me. It's all part of keeping borders secure and ensuring that people who come have a right to be there.

Hence the abundant anti-counterfeit features in passports, and the resulting high cost.

Hence the abundant anti-counterfeit features in passports, and the resulting high cost.

The former german minister of the interior, who was in office in 2001 and introduced excessive anti-counterfeiting measures for ID cards and passports, is now member of the board of a company that deals in biometric passports.

So, at least in this case, everybody can clearly see that expensive passports don't directly result from a need for security, but from lobbying.

I doubt that it's much different in the US.

(Thanks to him, we also have fantastically secure ID cards with biometric photos and fingerprints, while countries like the US and UK don't have ID cards at all.)

erinja:No, this forum isn't the place for a political petition. But if you wanted to write your message in Esperanto and post a petition link in the "viewpoints" forum, I'm sure that would be fine.

If the $130 passport fee is a financial hardship for you, then you probably can't afford to travel outside of North America.

I hate to put it this way but the passport fee is a drop in the bucket compared to the $800 or so that your plane ticket to Germany will cost, plus the cost of your food and lodging for your time abroad. Not to mention the money you'd have to lay out if something were to go wrong while you're abroad! An unexpected taxi ride to an airport, an unexpected night in a hotel, these could easily cost more than $100.

I shouldn't have to pay but a few bucks to get clearance to leave my country.

It's not clearance to leave your country. There's no US immigration checkpoint on leaving the country, only on returning. Airlines only check your passport when you leave the country because they don't want to bear the cost of flying you back if you're refused entry at your destination.

Another country may deny you entry if they think something seems suspicious about you. For example, if you say you're there for tourism, but the border official suspects that you intend to stay and work illegally. Sometimes they just stamp your passport but sometimes they ask you questions to see what you say. On one visit to the UK with my American passport, for example, they asked why I was coming, and I said for a family visit. They wanted to know my relatives' relationship to me. It's all part of keeping borders secure and ensuring that people who come have a right to be there.

Hence the abundant anti-counterfeit features in passports, and the resulting high cost.

There are actually alternate (cheaper) means than paying for a plane ticket but will the receiving country accept you with open arms if you have no passport? In a world, where peolpe are supposed to have rights to educate themselves and dream, fees stand in the way of that. Also, about the biometric cards, we're actually starting to use them in the U.S. (or a derivative) also. They're supposed to be virtually impossible to forge.