Clark Howard's Tips

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Clark gets lots of calls this time of year about travel. There was a big flurry of announcements back in January, regarding the need for just about everyone to have a passport these days.

The problem is that the government didn't increase spending to deal with all of the people applying for passports these days. As a result, passports are taking an unusually long time to get to their recipients and some are getting lost.

The deal is you must have a passport to travel by air to anywhere in the world. That does not include travel by land or sea. But if you are going to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean or anywhere overseas, you need a passport.

The reality is that if you're planning to go on a trip three months from now and have no passport, you may not get it in time. So you probably want an expedited passport. It costs extra, but you want to make sure you get it in time if you've bought a non-refundable ticket.

The Department of State clearly needs to get its act together with this.

Consumer advice courtesy of