Letters to the Editor
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The passport card
The day of or day after the Department of State began accepting applications for "passport cards" back in February, I sent my completed application, photos, current passport, and a check to the US Passport Agency. I had my passport returned and my check cashed, but no passport card.
I've called a couple of times since then to inquire about when they intended to ship them. The original date was sometime in March, I believe. It slipped to April, and now it's late spring or early summer.
This is the magic card with RFID in it. I'd really rather have it in my wallet than my passport if I decide to take the 130-mile trip to the San Diego-Tijuana border. However, they haven't sent me the finished product. I wonder what's going on with the manufacturing process? Are they overwhelmed with applications? The first time I called to inquire - about a month after sending in my application - the agent at the US Passport Agency said that my call was the first one she'd received on the passport card.
I suspect something fishy is going on with the manufacturing process, or the RFID algorithm has been cracked somehow so that the card can be "chipped". They did it for iPhones, so it can't be that great a technological leap to do it with a plastic card.