passports
i think i was 24 when i got a passport and only because i needed to travel abroad for work. during that time, there were no budget airlines, and airfares are prohibitively expensive such that to travel abroad for holidays was something only rich people did. never in my wildest dreams did i imagine that i would be traveling this much in my lifetime.
my children, though, by virtue of having relatives on opposite sides of the world, are destined to be voyagers from the start. jan was about 8 or 9 months when he got his passport and in the last five years, has probably clocked in more air miles than the average adult. and mia? she now has a passport, too, at the age of 3 weeks! no, no plans of traveling this early, but it’s a requirement for her residence permit here in singapore.
although both jan and mia are also pinoys by descent (jan was registered at the philippine embassy, then in bonn, and mia will be registered here in singapore as soon as i figure out how to prepare her footprint), they only have german passports. well, it’s the pragmatic choice, for travel convenience reasons, but recently, we were told that by law, they should be using a philippine passport when they enter the philippines. strange, as jan has always used his german one to enter the philippines and we never encountered problems at the immigration. and i am sure we aren’t the only ones. i can’t imagine american-born and thus american-passport holding pinoy kids use philippine passports to enter pinas, if they even have one at all!
how old were you when you got your passport? if you have a pinoy passport, what’s the color of your passport– brown, green, or black?
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9 Responses to “passports”
May 24th, 2008 at
hm, both little ones have no pinoy passports–now that you’ve mentioned that by law they have to, i’d probably have to inquire as well. i never really bothered coz as you said, for travel convenience reasons.
May 26th, 2008 at
like you, I was already an adult when I got my passport. in fact, Papa and I were already married and I had to get a passport so I could go with him to HK on a business and pleasure trip. Little did I know that that would be a first of a number of such trips. I have renewed my passport twice and to this day I am holding a green passport.
May 26th, 2008 at
my kids both have german and philippine passports, we applied for them right after they were born. sobrang excited ba though actually we simply wanted to be prepared for any eventuality. this february when we were checking in for our flight from fra to bkk, the lady in the counter dont want to accept the german passports of the kids kasi daw iba na daw ang rules sa thailand. my husband told the lady we’ll fly direct na lang from fra-bkk-mnl instead of staying for a few days in bangkok; but then i told him that the kids have philippine passports. ayun, we were able to stay in bangkok coz of that. as for new rule in pinas, i am not really aware of that.
May 26th, 2008 at
bagong law? i’m glad you mentioned that. something i definitely need to look into.
my first passport was brown, i was 19 when i got it. the second and third ay berde na. soon, i’ll get the blue. i passed my citizenship interview na, just waiting to take oath.
May 26th, 2008 at
Brown, always been brown!
May 27th, 2008 at
raquel, are you saying germans cannot enter thailand wihtou visa? i thought they can apply for a visa on arrival for a 30-day stay?
rhada, no hindi daw bago. according to teh officer sa german embassy dito, technically daw, ganun talaga. yun nga lang, in practice, hinde.
May 27th, 2008 at
[…] all these talk about passports and travel makes the sols of my feet itch. and the knowledge that i can’t, not until mia is a bit tougher, make the longing to go places all the more acute. […]
May 30th, 2008 at
i had my first passport when i was 8.. until now i still use a green passport!
May 31st, 2008 at
hi ruth, not the germans but the kids, kasi they only have those german kid passports e. their german passports should be upgraded na.