On 5/26/06, Florence Devouard anthere@wikimedia.org wrote:
Any File wrote:
It may be useful to add, on all revelant page like travel, visa, etc. a big notice to remeber to check the validity of the passport and to advise to request it, if needed, as soon as possible.
On 5/23/06, Florence Devouard anthere@wikimedia.org wrote:
The biometric passport is finally available in
Are you speking of the passport whit the digital photo? (actually the photo is actually a paper photo that is digitalized and printed as digital photo, not a photo directly taken in digital). This is what is required to enter in U.S. (who has a visa can use a passport without the digital photo. Passport iussed before October 26, 2005 may still have not the digital photo, but if the passpart was renewed after that date, it can not be used without the digital photo).
Biometric passport is a different thing. A passport with a chip inside in which many personal informations (not only hight, colour of eyes, but also a photograph and fingerstamps, etc) will be registered.
I finally figured all that stuff. My passport if from 2003, so is valid to enter the USA. What is not valid, is my son. I will come with him. He does not have a passport of course. A passport offers only two slots for kids; Then, the children area is covered by plastic and no more kids may be added. So, I thought that to add my son, I had to have a *new* passport. What I did not realise at all, is that biometric passport are per individual. So, the kids can not be added on passports any more, they have their own passport. Consequently, I can keep my old one, but need a biometric one for my son. An invitation letter for a baby is probably not gonna be very convincing, so I do not need that anymore (we'll add a letter to the request to try to explain the urgency).
What I find funny are the identity picture recommandation. The background should be neutral (no hands should be visible). The person head must be a certain size. The person must have eyes looking in the front (not up, not down, not on the sides). The person must not be sagging. Not smiling. Eyes should be open, and mouth closed.
Now, just TRY to do that on a baby who is not yet really able to keep his head straight and sucks two fingers all day long !
:-) You might want to try doing it via photoshop, ie. sit your baby down somewhere and have someone take a photo of him while you keep his head still and hands out of his mouth - make him look at the camera by clicking your fingers, waving a rattle etc. Then you can photoshop yourself out, plus anything in the background, making it neutral. If you don't have photoshop, you could use something like the GIMP <www.gimp.org>. If you can't/don't want to do that yourself, load it onto Commons, and have someone do it for you :-)
We just want you (and your son) to get to Wikimania - we'll do anything* for that to happen :-)
Cormac
* Ok, not "anything" - within reason..