Passports have disappeared again!! Increasingly frantic.

[dreamshark]

 I KNOW this much. I found our passports last week in the glove compartment of the van. That didn't seem like a safe place to store them (oh, the irony!) so I brought them inside. I either set them on the dining room table or at the very least showed them to Richard, who was sitting at the dining room table. We both confirm that. So they are in the house someplace. BUT WHERE???

I dimly remember thinking about putting them  someplace close at hand so we could grab them when we leave for Niagara Falls. But I  don't remember if I actually DID that, or just left them there. Of course, I'm accusing Richard of "putting them someplace" when he was cleaning up for the game party and he insists he never touched them. They aren't in my purse, or the folder I usually keep them in, or any of the places I think I would put them if I wanted them someplace easy to remember. I've progressed from looking every place they could logically be to under furniture near where I might logically put them. No luck. I'm reasonably sure that they are not in the office, which is now cleaner than it has been in  some time. I don't see why I would put them in a pocket, but I'm looking in the pockets of everything I can remember wearing in the last week. I'm not quite what to do next. 

Comments

[minnehaha]

Oh, criminy, that is terrible. Do you want some fresh eyes on this?

K.

[dreamshark]

If you want to come over to my house and search it for passports I wouldn't say no. But according to the Internet, it should be possible to get in and out of Canada without them, just might take a little longer. Canada doesn't actually require a passport, they just "prefer" it.

Getting back into the US is the sticky part. But it looks like our Global Entry Cards should let us just drive right in through the Nexus Lanes on the Bluewater Bridge without anybody asking for a passport. I just worry about that failing for some reason and getting held up for hours and missing the ferry. So if I can't find them tomorrow I think I'll switch our hotel reservation for Thursday night from London, Ontario, to something on the Michigan side. That way if it takes us 4 hours to get over the border it will just keep us up late rather than making us miss the ferry.

[minnehaha]

All my experience and the stories I've heard from others had to do with crossing at Pembina ND, so I don't know how well it will work elsewhere. But I think you can just go and they'll let you come home. I am pretty sure they cannot keep you out. Bring your birth certificates if you can lay hands on them. The Global Entry card isn't actually good for anything that I know of, except getting into bars without having to give up your DWI status and be thrown out if you have the marker on your drivers license. I mean, you don't show it to anyone at an airport border crossing.

If you can use it to drive across borders in some fast lane, then that sounds good.

Last time I re-upped my passport, I got the passport card, too. I don't know if that works at airport border crossings, to be honest. It might be just for driving.

When do you leave on the trip?

K.

[ckd]

Both the NEXUS and Global Entry cards are valid for land entry into the US in regular lanes as well as the expedited lanes.

[dreamshark]

Theoretically, the US cannot keep you out if you have "proof of citizenship," but who knows what that means in this day and age. Apparently the electronic beeper-deepers in the card can be used on the machines in the expedited fast lanes, which the Michigan border crossings all have because people commute back and forth across those bridges. There is a super-expedited lane for serious commuters called SENTRI that requires a complicated pre-registration of the vehicle, but also NEXUS lanes that don't require that. The Bluewater bridge has NEXUS lanes.

So I think we will be okay. But this is seriously messing with my sense of reality. If Richard hadn't seen the passports when I brought them in I would be wondering if I hallucinated the whole thing. I've turned the house upside down and they JUST ARE NOT HERE.

We leave on Sunday morning.

[ckd]

GE cards can be used for land entry without a passport, even in the regular lanes. As can passport card, enhanced driver's licenses, etc; see this list: https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/western-hemisphere-travel-initiative

[dreamshark]

Thanks for the reassurance. Not to be too skeptical, but have you used GE for reentry?

Sadly, our drivers licenses are the exact opposite of Enhanced. For reasons that passeth understanding, Minnesota is one of the last two states still resisting the Real ID requirements that the rest of the country went along with years ago. Every year we get a last minute waiver that lets Minnesota citizens use our substandard IDs to get on airplanes.

[ckd]

I've used my NEXUS card in the regular US entry lanes multiple times, since you can't use those lanes if you have non-NEXUS/GE passengers but I don't want to dig out my passport. (In one case it was in the trunk because I'd put it in my laptop bag....)

[dreamshark]

Thanks, good to know. Both Richard and I have GE cards, so the Nexus lanes should work fine. Unless of course I manage to lose the GE cards in the next 2 days. :-(

My faith in concrete reality is shaky at this point.

[bibliofile]

Yikes, BTDT. Sometimes I've outsmarted myself, packing the key thing ahead of time. Then forgetting that the thing is already packed, and frantically looking everywhere but where it's already packed. If that makes any sense.

Whatever happens, I hope the border crossings go smoothly.

[dreamshark]

Thanks. I know exactly what you mean. I have already followed that logic as far as I can, checking in my purse and the secret compartments in my usual suitcase. The infuriating thing is that when I started getting ready for the trip, the passports were exactly where they needed to be - in the glove compartment.