A passport carries its cautions, rules, too

At the start of a trip to England some years back, I presented my passport to the British Airways agent at Logan Airport. He examined it and said, "This is your wife's passport."

Fortunately, after a call home, my son came to the rescue. Others have not been so lucky, with document problems delaying or even canceling a trip. The website It's Easy, which expedites passports and visas for a price, points out rules that can trip you up:

• Many countries insist your passport be valid for at least six months beyond the trip's end.
• Some countries, such as South Africa, require as many as three empty visa pages.
• You need a passport for a baby if flying abroad.
• A passport for a child under 16 is valid for only five years. Both parents must sign the application for a child's passport, unless one parent can prove sole custody.

The company also offers these:

• Apply for a passport well in advance at an authorized post office. If time is a problem, the company suggests checking out its services. (The US Passport Agency can expedite a passport for $60 extra, promising a door-to-door time of two weeks instead of the normal time of less than four weeks. A spokeswoman for ItsEasy, however, says, "The Passport Agency can't get it back to you the same day, and many people don't want to go to, or can't get to, the Passport Agency." The company's charges for helping process a new adult passport quickly range from $75-$195 to an unspecified "call us" fee for next-business-day service, plus return postage charges ranging from $22-$195 for those who have no accounts or do not prepay the big delivery services.)
• Only original photos with white backgrounds are accepted. You cannot be photographed wearing hats, scarves, or sunglasses unless required for health or religious reasons.
• Frequent travelers can ask for a 48-page document when applying for a new passport, or have pages added to an old passport.

• Always carry a copy of your passport's picture page. If you lose your passport in a foreign country, showing this to the US Embassy should speed the replacement.

To that, we would add:

• Confusion still exists over whether passports are needed to reenter the United States from the Caribbean (excluding the US Virgin Islands), Bermuda, Canada, or Mexico. If you are flying, passports are definitely needed. If you are reentering by land or sea, you need a valid, government-issued photo ID such as a driver's license and proof of citizenship such as a birth certificate. But come June 1, 2009, you will need a passport, a new passport card, or an equivalent document.
• Unlike full passports, the new passport cards will be valid only for land and sea travel between the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean region, and Bermuda. But they will cost less: $20-$45 for adults.

For all rules, fees, and application forms, visit travel.state.gov/passport. The It's Easy website is www.itseasypassport.com.

Richard P. Carpenter can be reached at carpenter@globe.com.