It's better not to carry it with you: Tips for passport safety during travelling
When travelling abroad, it is important to keep track of your passport. Therefore, experts have given several recommendations on how to protect yourself while travelling abroad.
The first step before starting any foreign trip is to check the validity of your passport. It's worth remembering that many countries require your passport to be valid for at least six months after your arrival date, well-known travel expert Johnny Jet writes.
Another tip is that if you are applying for or renewing your passport, don't wait until the last minute but start the procedure 4-6 months before your planned trip. In addition, it is important to find out all the details about crossing the border of the country you plan to travel to in advance.
The expert says that you should definitely find out whether you need a visa. Therefore, use official resources to find out whether you need a visa or not, as well as other important information such as the location of the embassy and any consular offices.
Make sure that you still have enough blank pages in your passport as some migration services stamp blank pages of your passport even if they do not need the entire page. If you are afraid of running out of pages, you can cover the empty pages with Post-It notes or ask them not to stamp certain pages.
To avoid getting into trouble, never put your passport in the back pocket of your pants. Firstly, it can be easily stolen from there, and secondly, your documents can fall out unnoticed. Always carry money and valuables in your front pocket, where they will be much safer.
You should also remember to score twice before you cut once, so when travelling, make it a habit to double-check the back seat of a taxi, the seatback pocket of an airplane, and your hotel room for personal items. After all, many people leave their phones, wallets, and passports there.
Tourists are advised to keep their passports safe at all times. There are many ways to do this, from using a money belt to a special jacket with several pockets. Travellers are also advised to never carry passports with them unless they are crossing a border. Just keep it in a safe place, but don't carry it with you.
If you're travelling in a large group, it's worth heeding the advice to add small coloured stickers to the cover of your passports with the first initials of each person. After that, you no longer need to fumble around, opening five passports and trying to figure out which passport belongs to which person, rushing in lines.
The expert also advises travellers to use the Global Entry programme of Customs and Border Protection. After all, this service provides expedited processing through customs and border protection at airports and land borders upon arrival in the United States. A nice bonus is that you will never have to wait more than a few minutes to get from the plane to the airport gate.
If you need a passport immediately and you don't want to wait in lines and can afford it, then use the services of companies that provide official passport assistance services. This will save you time and speed up the moment of your long-awaited trip.
