This is just a quick rumination on a conversation that my good friend Anj and I had the other day over IM…
It was regarding passports, and hiring people to work on a job that happened to be in another country. My friend was looking for someone to be flown to Germany to do some LED install work, and one of the people she called asked her if they needed a passport.
Hmm. Traveling overseas to another country means you need a passport, dude. Does anyone really not have a passport anymore? I got my first passport right after grad school when I knew I was going to have the possibility of working in another country at some point – even Canada is another country, of course. The best and worst comment I ever received about traveling to Canada was "why do I need a passport for Canada? Canada and Mexico are right next door."
*sigh*
If you're living a life in the lighting industries, get a passport. You never know when an awesome opportunity might spring up, and believe me, it ain't cheap to get it rushed. It's an additional $60 plus all the fees associated with getting a passport. To get a United States Passport, go to the US Department of State's Travel.State.Gov website and get yourself informed about where to go and how to get your passport process kicking. The passport home is here, and getting info on rushed services is here. Get your passport already! Also, when you have a US Passport and have to fill out one of those employment eligibility verification forms, your passport counts as two documents, which can most of the time be awesome.