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Victoria Johanningsmeier, sophomore in psychology, listens to Dr. Robert Kochersberger talk about the process of getting a passport on the 2nd floor of Talley Student Center. The Passport Fair has been held at N.C. State for the past six years and always occurs during International Education Week, which is the third week in November every year. “I’m looking to study abroad in Italy over the summer,” Johanningsmeier said. Photo by Nick Toptine
The passport fair held Tuesday at Talley Student Center allowed students to complete the application process required to obtain or renew a passport.
To complete this process, students were required to have filled out the appropriate forms, present proofs of citizenship and submit two recent self-photographs. A photographer and state advisers were present to assist.
Brad Schaefer, a senior in business administration, said the passport fair was an excellent opportunity for students going abroad or who need another form of ID.
“It’s good that they’re making it easier for students to get passports and it’s much more convenient on campus,” he said.
“It seems like they have a good process here,” Schaefer said. “There are lots of people to talk to and help you and it’s pretty quick if you have all of the forms filled out and ready.”
According to Robert Kochersberger, an associate professor of English, the Committee of International Programming has sponsored the passport fair for the past six years.
Kochersberger, who is also a member of the committee, said he suggested the initial idea of a passport fair and has overseen it since its inception.
“International activities are so crucially important that making the details and processes as easy as possible is good for the University to do,” Kochersberger said. “I wish all students would get overseas and activities like this are held to encourage more students to do so.”
Students were able to obtain either a new model of the passport book, which now contains an embedded chip to expedite processing abroad, or the recently introduced passport card.
The passport book allows travel anywhere in the world by any modes of travel. The passport card allows travel to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda and only by land and sea.
Demetria Rivers, the senior passport specialist at the Charleston Passport Center, said the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative makes having a passport even more important than before.
While traditionally a passport was only required to enter foreign countries, with the WHTI citizens must now present a passport to reenter the United States.
“We wanted to give students the opportunity to apply for passports to allow them to travel and study abroad,” Rivers said. “Passports open up a lot of doors to see the world and study other cultures.”
“We are accepting, executing and processing applications and mailing them back to the CPC,” Rivers said.
According to Rivers, because applications submitted at the passport fair are mailed directly back to the CPC, students will receive their passports a little quicker as a number of processing steps are removed.
Mary Lewis, a sophomore in plant biology, said having a passport fair on campus was a great resource for busy students.
“It’s a good idea to get [a passport] before you decide to go somewhere,” she said. “I don’t have the means or opportunity to go off campus to the post office and having [the passport fair] on campus made it easily accessible.”
“It was an easy process, I was done in less than five minutes and it seems like it would be less chaotic than the post office because it’s just students and you get more personal help,” Lewis said.