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Comment by java-man | Hacker News Reader

A passport card is easier to obtain (with or without the passport book). Get that instead.

It isn't easier to get a passport. Same basic documents required, but passport takes longer, is more expensive, and you have to provide the photos yourself.

I got my picture taken at a post office.

Or any drug store.

In my state (Washington) it is actually cheaper to get a non-Real ID driver's license plus a passport card if you take your own photo.

A passport card is $65 and good for 10 years. That's $6.50/year.

A Real ID driver's license driver's license in my state is $42 dollars more to renew for 6 years than a non-Real ID license. That's $7.00/year. It can also be renewed for 8 years for for $56 more than a non-Real ID license, which is again $7.00/year.

In addition to being cheaper a passport card can be used both as an ID and to show citizenship. A Real ID is only an ID.

I have both. I remember having to get the passport, and remember each renewal (getting pictures, collecting the documents, finding the forms, sending them in, waiting to get them back). I have Real ID as well and have no memory of actually getting it, which makes me think it wasn't very hard.

Having to carry a passport card within the US sounds harder than just carrying my license. Especially when the passport card has all sorts of warnings about keeping it in the paper sleeve it comes with. It acts like it needs to be treated with kid gloves, and not just thrown in a wallet, like a license.

I/we have the opposite problem. My wife paid extra and got a REAL ID, I resisted. I just got a passport instead (as did she).

My wife, when she renewed her DL this time, got a drivers' license stamped "NOT FOR REAL ID PURPOSES" because she didn't bring in her identity documents AGAIN to the DMV.

Screw that. The passport lasts twice as long as a driver's license, and we're going to carry those anyway, so...why pay extra and have to remember all these documents? Passport renewal is easier.

The passport is only easier if you already have a driver's license. Otherwise the requirements are just as onerous.

That's not the point. The passport card is an alternative.

But your comment about the need to get the passport in the first place and it being expensive is entirely valid.

The passport card is slightly larger than a credit card and thus doesn't fit properly in most wallets. Otherwise I wouldn't mind having it on my all the time.

I have never seen a wallet that won't take a passport card. Also, my passport card is precisely the same dimensions as every other card in my wallet. Maybe you got a weird one?

Are you sure? In the US, the Passport Card is pretty much exactly the same size as any US credit or debit card

I went back to check because I was second guessing myself now and it turns out it fits just fine. I think I was being silly because it comes in this little piece of paper that says it is a "protective sleeve" so I was trying to keep it inside the paper.

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