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speculatrix t1_ja2gzy5 wrote

Reply to comment by not_czarbob in TIFU by texting my ex-wife by LaVieEnRoseLavelle

People take their children on holiday/vacation abroad all the time here in Europe. Our son had a passport aged 7, daughter 5, to go to Disneyland/Paris.

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Redbeardtheloadman t1_ja3c610 wrote

Okay, does that not qualify as leaving the country?

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speculatrix t1_ja4rbhk wrote

Yes, abroad = leaving the country

But I might misunderstand your comment?

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HelenaBirkinBag t1_ja59q7l wrote

There are different zones and treaties in Europe. It depends where you live and where you are going. Example: UK to France, you need a passport. France to Germany, you do not.

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ichigoichi3 t1_ja4p4ae wrote

Even in Canada, everyone gets passports for their babies and go all over. It’s very normal.

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stlmick t1_ja2s28w wrote

it is uncommon in the US.

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kimar2z t1_ja35fqp wrote

To be fair - it's really only super uncommon only in lower income households. Ya know, people who can't afford to travel and whatnot.

I say that, of course, by at 27 years old I still don't have a passport and my baby sister got hers at 17 after saving up for a year to plan a summer trip to visit a friend who lived in Italy. Pretty sure my mom doesn't have one either, tbh.

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stlmick t1_ja36z9w wrote

Well I am from the midwest. When I was 23, I had a buddy who had never left the state border. We went to a different city on a road trip with our friends band. He was stoked. It was on our side of the city though. We offered to drive an extra 20 minutes but that wouldn't have counted so we didn't.

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kimar2z t1_ja39dsr wrote

Your poor friend hahaha. I know people like that! But in my case it's almost reasonable, because I live in Texas. You can pretty much drive all day and still be in Texas. Sometimes I think that Texas is inescapable and my presence here is a form of punishment for some atrocious sin I must have committed in a past life. Texas is suffering.

Then again, I went to Canada briefly as a child for my uncle's wedding. But I was like 3 years old and I only kinda remember it. It was in like 1999 too, so I didn't even need a passport to go. Kinda crazy looking back on it haha.

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Lexnal t1_ja3biw0 wrote

Texas is huge, I always found it funny that the state of Texas accounted for half of my drive to and from MN.

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HelenaBirkinBag t1_ja5abae wrote

That’s common in the Midwest but uncommon on the coasts. It’s cheaper for me to fly to Reykjavik than it is to LA. My children are teens and have traveled to Europe on four separate occasions, but they’ve never been to California. I went to uni in Ohio and it blew my mind how many people had never seen the ocean.

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Altruistic-Bad228 t1_ja374jt wrote

Don't worry bud, I didn't get mine til I was 26.

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kimar2z t1_ja39jmy wrote

Fair enough. I hope to get mine one day, if nothing else because I live in Texas and I'm close(ish) to the Mexico border, and my boyfriend has family that lives in Mexico, so at some point we'd like to go see some of them... but it'll be a bit lol

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pgm928 t1_ja4c902 wrote

I didn’t get a passport until I was in my mid-30s. Who are these people trotting off to Paris at a moment’s notice?

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[deleted] t1_ja2s9kz wrote

[deleted]

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amazingsandwiches t1_ja2tdr7 wrote

Wow, you sure do know a lot about Europe!

Since you're the expert, you might want to delete this baseless untruth from wikipedia.

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mrdannyg21 t1_ja2u2cf wrote

Americans need a passport to go to Canada or Mexico, or any other country. Normal exceptions apply, like for deployed military.

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nothxshadow t1_ja3eexy wrote

You don't need a passport within the EU and not even outside it in some countries.

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JarrekValDuke t1_ja4ldng wrote

When your country spans the size of several large countries with as vast and diverse travel spots as each of those countries combined ranging from countries like Australia to the Swiss alps…. And all you need to visit them is a simple plane ticket and a night of clothes? International trips are…. Kinda unheard of

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speculatrix t1_ja55u02 wrote

Yes, that's true, you can enjoy any climate or terrain in the USA. Mountains, snow, desert, lake.

International flights or trains are trivial here though. And, like I said, people will cross a border to go to a cheaper shop!

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JarrekValDuke t1_ja58rfb wrote

Yeah it’s super nutzo how the world is scaled, but yeah that’s why a 5 yo with a passport here and no planned trips are… weird

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