Warning About Passport Covers & Holders

by SharonKurheg

The holiday season is coming, which means you may be looking for the perfect gift for your favorite traveler (or maybe even for yourself).

A passport cover is a relatively popular gift. Besides the ability to pay a minimal to a maximal amount for one, you also have lots of options for style and design. So you can go for the ones that cost a penny on Amazon (and $5 postage LOL!)…
a red passport cover with black text…or get one for $88 from Kate Spade…

a black passport holder with text
…or anywhere in between.

A true confession that shows not only how cheap I am, but how OLD I am, too – my passport holder is the plastic sleeve that my old bank passbook used to be in. What can I say, it fits perfectly!

a black passport with gold text

Anyway, a friendly warning to you, if you use a passport cover – regardless of what kind you have, heads up that if you use one, chances are really, REALLY good that when you get to Immigration, you’re going to have to remove it from the holder.

With my DIY passport holder, it’s a no-brainer that I have to remove it – it’s in a 3-sided plastic sleeve ;- ). But even if you have one that holds the passport so it can open and show everything, immigration officers in most countries will ask you to remove your passport from the holder so they can inspect it more thoroughly.

If there’s something blocking the passport’s cover, immigration workers can’t see if it’s a biometric passport (with a chip) or not. The front page nationality is important for them to see. Immigration officers will also want to feel the quality of the front page to make sure it’s not counterfeit.

Of course, as technology improves, we may eventually see international travel without the use of passports at all. But until then, if you give or get a passport cover, be aware that chances are it’ll have to be removed for Immigration.

Feature Photo: Amazon

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

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