So this is confusing. I am from Belfast. I have lived on the Isle of Man since 1999. I have a Manx Passport; which looks like a British passport; which IS a British passport, but the Manx ones are the only editions that say Isle of Man on the front.
As I was born in Belfast, I could also have an Irish passport if I wanted, but that would just be over the top and fiddly.
So here's my issue. A couple of years ago I went to New York. Flew from here to Belfast, to Newark, queued through Immigration, filled in forms, had pictures taken, was verified through....after 5 days in New York we did the same thing again on the homeward journey.
Until I got to Belfast.
I must point out that upon landing in Belfast, we hadn't slept for over 24 hours, Andrew was partially in pain and fully drunk from self-medicating a chronic tooth ache that took off on take off........and I was becoming mildly delirious.
The lady at the Belfast desk, checking everyone who landed pulled me up about my passport (?)
Apparently, "it's gotten a bit damp at some point", and there was a little water mark around one of the edges. She spent the next ten minutes explaining to me in several different ways why I should have it looked at because it might cause problems if I were to go through another border check point; "it can be a sign of tampering".
How Andrew didn't pass out or throw up during this very llloooooong ten minutes is beyond me.
Problem is to get a new one issued costs £78.00......£78.00!! and I can't really see anything wrong with it, nor did anyone else I passed it through. So I asked my good friend, whose partner is German but lives in England IF she has to use her passport to go back and forth within Europe.
He said NO, she just uses her ID card. We're all EU. Having looked into this TECHNICALLY he's right. We don't need a verified or current passport to travel between here and Europe, we just need valid Photo ID.
But having looked into the matter further, I've realized the only OFFICIALLY ACCEPTED form of Valid Photo ID if you are from the UK is..........a valid passport.
So; do I spend £78.00 getting a new shiny passport while my current one is still valid and no one but 'hawk eye' in Belfast has ever had a problem with it...... OR do I risk my current one and back it up with a driving licence...and risk the wrath of Dutch Immigration...
....it's not like I look like trouble................(?)
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