Step One

Whenever one thinks of moving or even traveling outside of the US, the first thing that comes up is the good ol’ passport. Not the passport card or the new fancy passport drivers license or whatever they’re calling it now. A standard passport book. Obviously, I’ve never had one nor has my husband or my kids – so, that’s step one.

First, let me say that this information is accurate as of the writing of this post and it may be different at the time of reading. With that out of the way – here we go!

If you already have a US passport with X number of empty pages in it, then you’re golden. But if you don’t… then you’re going to face your first large expense with regards to traveling outside the country. For just one person, or even two, it’s not a huge expense but when you’re talking about four of them – it can get pricey.

First – a first-time adult passport will cost you $110 plus a $35 application fee. So, $145 when it’s all said and done. That’s for anyone aged 16 and up. For anyone under the age of 16, it’ll be $85 plus that pesky $35 application cost, equaling $120. For our family, as it will stand when the time comes (we’re shooting for an estimated, hopeful, moving year of 2022) – that’ll still be three adult passports and one child.

That’s not all though – both my husband, daughter, and myself will all three need an international driving permit if we hope to be able to drive once we’re over there. Those are $20 each, which isn’t that bad. So, that’s another $60 added on, bringing our grand total to $615.

The international driving permit is offered through AAA while the passports are obviously offered through the US Passport office. Passports do take about 6 weeks to get to you, so that is something to keep in mind and you’re going to need certified copies of your birth certificates, your ID cards or drivers licenses, and your social security cards as well as approved photos that you can luckily get at many places including most post offices. The driving permits take anywhere from 4-6 weeks.

Now, because we’re not completely deluded – we also plan to make a trip to Scotland in 2021, if we can – with everything going on (Covid) we have no idea if that’ll happen but that’s what we’re hoping for. A scouting trip in all reality. A chance to see the country and check out England, a chance for my husband to maybe meet with his company’s people over there, and generally get a feel for it. Being rural people ourselves, I don’t think we’ll have a hard time with the pace of life over there. But, it’s still important that we check it out before we commit. Because once we do this… it’s done. It won’t be easy to come back. So we had better be sure.