I Never Panic. I'm Panicking Now.

[Coventina]

For over a month now, my mother has been pestering me about her missing passport. It was in her closet, she said, and suddenly it was gone. It was expired, and renewing would be easier if she had the old one. She had no immediate travel plans, just a vague desire to visit Ethiopia, the country where she was born and raised, at some point in the future.

As we often do with our elders, I gently brushed off her increasingly insistent requests for help. She lives in Maryland; I live in New York. It hardly felt urgent. She is forgetful. She misplaces things all the time. It would turn up, I was sure.

When I woke up the morning after Donald Trump had been swept back to the presidency by a slim but decisive margin, I was seized by a sudden, cold panic with the thought ‘Where is Mom’s passport?’ What if Trump’s administration made good on its deportation promises and she suddenly needed to prove that she is, indeed, a naturalized citizen of this country? Did my frail, 73-year-old mother have her papers in order should the knock come on her door?

This feeling caught me completely by surprise, much more so than Trump’s victory, which, after all, was a very likely possibility. I am not given to panic. I think catastrophic thinking is almost always overblown. Panic and alarm: These are feelings that a lifetime of observing the world from a sanguine, journalistic remove, always taking the long view, had taught me to extinguish the moment they flared. What good can come from such strong emotion?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/opinion/trump-deportation-immigration.html

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Fuck the fascists

[Disaffected]

1. Not understanding this.

Why would a passport be the only available way of demonstrating one's citizenship?

[Mariana]

10. It's not.

People born in the US have their birth certificates. A naturalized citizen has a certificate of naturalization. The passport is much easier to carry around, though, and it's probably harder to fake.

[Disaffected]

15. Yes, and gov't online data as well.

I would be surprised if ICE or other law enforcement organizations did not have access to online citizenship data for everyone.

[aggiesal]

30. I know people won't believe me but ...

A passport is the closest document to prove you're a US Citizen.
Yes, A U.S. Birth Certificate can prove you're a citizen, but U.S. citizens have moved out of country and become citizens of those other countries, so a U.S. Birth Certificate would be useless.
Passport is still the one document that proves you're a citizen.

If I'm Coventina, I'd contact the State Department immediately to get the paper rolling before Pendejo45 takes over.
Don't act panicked, just state that the passport is missing.

[markodochartaigh]

43. And a birth certificate

should be a certified copy with the raised seal.

Also, people should be aware that once Trump is in power, chances are that government services will not function smoothly. It might be a good idea to get a replacement passport expedited.

[aggiesal]

47. I completely agree with that. ...

There is going to be such a disruption, nobody is going to be spared.
Idiots!

[usonian]

2. You can get a replacement.

https://www.usa.gov/lost-stolen-passport

I am 75, sharper than ever, but I do keep a list ( which I try not to misplace) of items that took a walk.

Most are found, between bed covers or in jacket or jeans pockets. Never in the obvious place, the freezer, but I look there anyway, and have some ice cream.

Current list (I found it) has 13 items, 10 checked off, so I am looking for all my glass pie dishes, all my suspender belts, and 1/3 of a pole chain saw.

The others showed up.

Best of luck.

Now, what was the question again?

[MiHale]

11. Had a neighbor years ago...

I was younger he was little older…he always complained about his missing this or that. One day he’s bitching about his grass clippers. Told him let’s go to Fish, they have a good tool section…Fish is our local Salvation Army type store, christian run. Anyway…we go and he’s walking around shopping and yells to me “Hey! I found my clippers!” We looked around and found a couple more little things that were his. His wife donated them and forgot to tell him.
Went for a couple beers and laughed our butts off.

[iluvtennis]

31. LOL 😂. n/t

[AKwannabe]

38. This

Is literally the best thing I have read in two weeks. Thank you!!

[usonian]

40. Wow! You're welcome.

Mark Twain is one of my heroes.

Laugh or cry, it's all fact.

[LoisB]

3. I hope she is able to find it. I know the renewal can be done online now but I'm relatively sure information from

the old one is required.

[MLWR]

4. I hope she is able to find it. I know the renewal can be done online now but I'm relatively sure information from

It's usually a good idea to make a copy of the information page of one's passport and keep it separate from the passport itself.

[LoisB]

16. That is true and very good advice.

[Delphinus]

17. Thanks

I'm going to do that with mine right now.

[seaglass]

48. There are a number of restrictions for renewing online or by mail. I had to renew mine in person (at the PO) because

my passport expired more than 15 years ago.

If the passport is reported lost or stolen it has to be renewed in person (PO is fine).

I just renewed mine Tuesday so this is current info.

[MissB]

22. Yeah I think she just needs the first page info

Booklet number, issue date.

I just renewed my expired passport online. There was definitely a box for having lost the passport.

[LoisB]

25. That's good to know.

[JT45242]

5. If it less than five years expired you could apply on line

I did. Did not need to mail in the old passport yet.

[MissB]

23. Don't have to mail it at all as far as I could tell

I just renewed my expired one online. Pretty sure it said you don’t have to mail it in. It’s no longer valid of course.

[seaglass]

49. If it expired 15+ years ago you have to renew in person. n/t

[MissB]

50. True. I think the current maximum issue date is 2009

[mnhtnbb]

6. Did she make a photocopy of the passport?

That information would be helpful in applying for a new one immediately, stating that her previous one had been lost.

When our house burned down in 2007, my passport was destroyed. I applied for a replacement--indicating mine was lost in a house fire--and it didn't take long to get it. Of course I first had to get my birth certificate from NY and my marriage license from Los Angeles.

It pays to keep a photocopy of your passport in a safe place. I also never travel without a photocopy kept separate from my passport.

[Martin68]

8. Everyone should definitely photograph or scan their passport and keep the data in a safe place (or multiple places).

Applying for a passport from scratch can be time-consuming and difficult.

[Tanuki]

27. I also scanned my passport and sent it to myself as an e-mail attachment.

If the original gets lost while I'm traveling, I can go online and download or print a copy.

[dickthegrouch]

44. Email is not a secure medium

I wish people would stop recommending using it.

Email is worse than a postcard almost anyone could read it Google and many other electronic post office equivalents read everything.

[Martin68]

54. Keeping a copy in the cloud is also a good strategy.

[Lonestarblue]

24. I have photos on my phone of my passport and driver's license, and Covid shots when we needed those to travel.

[Martin68]

7. I persuaded my Japanese wife to become a citizen during Trump's first term due to my fear about the future.

She is a citizen now, I'm hearing stories of people having citizenship revoked.

[Lucky Luciano]

9. I have a Japanese wife too.

One of the main reasons she doesn’t want to get us citizenship is because tr$@p is a disgrace. Japanese passport is better than American anyway…especially with his lowness returning.

[calimary]

13. "...his lowness"! I like that A LOT!!!

Definitely fits! Nice riff off his royalty-wannabe complex, too.

[Lucky Luciano]

28. Yeah...I think this will be my new moniker going forward!

[soldierant]

32. Charles Dickens referred to James I of England as "His Sowship."

[calimary]

42. Now THAT'S a good one, too!

And he doesn’t do brinksmanship. With him it’s STINKmanship.

[Martin68]

51. My wife would rather live in the States. She found Japanese society a great deal too repressive. she has totally

blossomed in the US. I'd much rather live here than in Japan (I lived there for over 20 years).

[Lucky Luciano]

56. Yeah same here.

She does have a green card and has been here since 2000 (NYC until 2021, Chicago now).

She has a much more aggressive highly confrontational no nonsense type of personality too, so she fits in much more here though she’s not in the workforce anymore.

We do very well financially, but would consider moving to Japan in retirement for better medical care (ie we do well, but don’t have 50 million bucks or anything like that!). We would need to consider the double taxation (US and Japan income tax) thing though if we did that.

[progressoid]

18. Revoked?

Did she lie on her application or committed a war crime?

Obviously don't answer that. It seems unlikely that your wife would be a target for such an action.

That said, if my spouse was Japanese, I might be considering going back in January if that was an option. YMMV.

[soldierant]

33. That would be true in any other administration.

This one has openly talked about revoking citizenship and has not talked at all about cause, which I take to mean that if they want to deport a citizen, they will find an excuse. Including natural born citizens.

[Martin68]

52. She did not lie about anything on her application. No need to. But when xenophobic right wingers get going, they can use

any excuse to achieve what they want, and cook one up when they want to. I minor traffic accident could be blown out of proportion, or a tax return mistake. Better safe than sorry.

[soandso]

19. Where are you hearing these stories?

[DFW]

46. My Virginia-based brother has a Japanese wife

She wanted to keep her citizenship, but his security clearance forbade him from being married to someone who was not a US citizen. So, she was forced to take US citizenship. Their sons are (or were) citizens of the USA and Japan, but I din’t know if they have kept their Japanese citizenship current. Complete government bullshit, of course, because if she were there to spy for the government of Japan, she could do it just as easily (or more so) as an American citizen as she could as a resident Japanese citizen. Cruelly, she refused to speak Japanese to their sons, thus depriving them of a fluency in Japanese that would have opened up so many job doors. Their younger one studied foreign relations and is near fluent in Arabic. So they stationed him in Kyiv. Of course.

[Martin68]

53. One's first post with the Foreign Service or one of the intelligence agencies is usually in a culture that speaks a

different language than you speak both as a test of your abilities two adapt and a precaution to avoid the danger of an employee identifying too strongly with the culture in which they are living. My Dad was fluent in Spanish, but his first posting was in Cyprus. My parents loved living there, as it turned out. Subsequent posting were all in Latin America.

[totodeinhere]

12. Don't worry. The fact that your Mom is a legal naturalized citizen is in the

government's database. Just have her apply for a replacement passport.

[LittleGirl]

14. She's as nervous as I am

My spouse and his family are all naturalized but they have brown skin. I’m near panic level fear of what’s to come. At least remember that when you tell someone to relax, calm down. Right? Sounds terrible and I’m sure you didn’t mean it that way.

[totodeinhere]

29. I did not mean anything negative with my comment.

I was just trying to help.

[Evolve Dammit]

20. Mrs. ED just renewed on line and didn't have to send in old one

[NBachers]

21. I had "the talk" with my Shanghai friend the other day. She's legitimate and waited 10 years for legal admission,

and I think she’ll be OK. But I still told her to always keep good identification on you in case you get checked out.

The American born Mexican side of my family has no such illusions. They keep themselves, provably legal and legitimate wherever they go.

I’m glad we live in California, but I also know that we will be Ground Zero for retaliation.

[soldierant]

34. Copies of good identification

I would have multiple copies available, some on my portable hard drive, more copied either emailed to myself like a previous commenter, or in the cloud for those who use that - I don't. and always have one complete copy of everything on my person The originals under lock and key.

[mercuryblues]

26. It is not as hard to replace as you think it might be

I had let my passport expire while I was sick. I was three months out of the five-year period they gave us grace for because of Covid so I had to apply for a new one. I got it back Last week

I applied on November 7. I believe it was only a three week turnaround time and that is for a new passport. I did turn in my old passport that was expired and they sent that back to me along with my new one.

[Liberty Belle]

35. You can get a new passport in 2 weeks if you tell them you're traveling soon.

4-6 weeks even if not traveling soon, if you pay a rush fee.
Apply now while the Biden administration is still in charge, in case Trump slows or restricts passport renewals.

I lost a passport once and it was not a problem to get a new one.

[moniss]

36. For people who don't think this fear is well founded

they must have erased from their memories the actions of Sheriff Joe in Arizona.

[BigMin28]

37. My son,

actually my grandson whom I adopted when he was born has some Latino origins, along with Spanish and Portuguese. We live in Texas and I know what you mean. I went last week and got 2 copies of his long form birth certificate. We are also getting him a new passport. His old one expired when he turned 18. That is the reason I won't be speaking to family that voted for the Apricot Anti-christ. They have put my son in danger.

[AKwannabe]

39. I got the card and the book

They are kept separate.

Just an idea when replacing…

[lostnfound]

41. Does she have her naturalization certificate? If not..then maybe get started in a replacement

The form to replace naturalization certificate is N565: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/n-565instr.pdf
*For purposes of being lost or stolen, you need either a police report of the theft OR a sworn statement, as evidence.
*Does she have a driver license? If so, that helps. If not… getting tougher. Some government issued photo idea, which probably turns into a vicious circle without the passport or other proof of citizenship.
*If she married, divorced, or was widowed after being naturalized she needs proof of that too.

If she has her naturalization certificate, the passport replacement is probably a lot easier.

Doing it now before trump gets in and cuts staff in government agencies (or worse) is probably a good idea.

[C Moon]

45. When trump won in 2016, a young man from India who worked at a neighborhood 711, was scared shitless

that trump would begin deporting everyone.
It was sad to see him in fear like that.
The guy talking to him was saying he would help find him a place to hide and he hushed the 711 employee when I walked up to the cash register (because I was a white guy). The employee said, "No. He's cool." I'd known him for a while.

He wasn't deported, because trump's work didn't go that far in his first attempt.

I fear, this time, the deportations are going to reach much further. How can this NOT fuck up our economy?

[yaesu]

55. I don't panic, I get even. nt