{"id":1298,"date":"2010-06-20T17:36:32","date_gmt":"2010-06-20T22:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rushmypassport.com\/blog\/?p=1298"},"modified":"2019-09-18T14:47:58","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T14:47:58","slug":"why-do-so-few-americans-bother-getting-a-passport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushmypassport.com\/blog\/why-do-so-few-americans-bother-getting-a-passport\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do So Few Americans Bother Getting a Passport?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In some countries, getting a passport is almost second nature.\u00a0 Not here, though. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theexpeditioner.com\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/17\/how-many-americans-have-a-passport-2\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">this recent post on The Expeditioner.com<\/a>, only 22% Americans have a passport. That&#8217;s less than a quarter of the population! For a little perspective,\u00a0 compare that rate to our neighbors in Canada. According to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Canadian_passport\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Wikipedia,<\/a> 56.2% of Canadians have a Canadian passport.<\/p>\n<p>Why is it so different here? The Expeditioner lays out a couple of possible reasons, both of which I basically agree with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Money: Most families don&#8217;t have enough extra lying around right now for a passport, much less all of the other expenses associated with international travel. Getting a passport for a family of 4 is no joke, financially speaking, and the US Department of State&#8217;s proposed passport fee increases certainly aren&#8217;t going to help matters.<\/li>\n<li>Culture: Traveling abroad isn&#8217;t as much a part of the culture here as it is in, say, Europe for example. The Expeditioner attributes this to Europe&#8217;s history of colonizing other parts of the world, while America pretty much kept to itself. I think you could also argue that America&#8217;s size plays a part-you can do and see a lot without leaving the US, and unless you live next to Canada and Mexico, it&#8217;s not as easy to visit another country as it is in Europe.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here&#8217;s another factor I think the Expeditioner might have left out:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Paperwork: Getting a passport requires dealing with paperwork, forms and bureaucrats, all of which Americans are historically impatient with.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In fact, if you have a deadline coming up and you need your passport quickly, the paperwork and time involved can go from intimidating to downright terrifying. Did I fill out this form correctly? Is there anything that could hold up my application?<\/p>\n<p>In times like these, you may want to consider using a private passport expediting company like RushMyPassport.com. When you apply through us, you get helpful instructions and checklists to make sure that nothing is missed, and you get the assistance of a private passport specialist who can answer any questions you may have.\u00a0 Then, we deliver your application directly to the Department of State for processing in as little as 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>Apply today to see how easy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rushmypassport.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">getting a passport<\/a> can be!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In some countries, getting a passport is almost second nature.  Not here, though. According to this recent post on The Expeditioner.com, only 22% Americans have a passport.  Why do so few Americans bother? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-1298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-passport-processing","tag-getting-a-passport"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushmypassport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushmypassport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushmypassport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushmypassport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushmypassport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1298"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushmypassport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11667,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushmypassport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1298\/revisions\/11667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushmypassport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushmypassport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushmypassport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}