unsmiling passport photos, returning resident alien

How quickly one year passes! It's almost time for me to make my obligatory annual visit to the US to re-establish my US permanent residency status. Or as it's worded in officialese:

A permanent resident alien returning to the United States from a visit abroad of less than a year may apply for readmission  by presenting an Alien Registration Receipt Card ("green card") to the immigration authorities at a port of entry.
[Returning Resident Alien Leaflet, U.S. Department of State]

Even more scary is how quickly the past ten years have gone by. My Australian passport has expired after ten years and it's time for me to renew it. I have discovered that by law, my new passport photo must be unsmiling. I gather that smiles cause problems with new face scanning technologies, where scanners in the airport try to match the faces with the passport photos. Maybe unsmiling passport photos are also a lot more realistic, especially considering how most people feel at the end of a long-haul flight.

So, I'm going to be visiting Hawaii between the 9th and 15th of September. Hawaii doesn't have the reputation of being a cheap destination, but it's the cheapest US destination for me to reach from Australia. It's weird to think that for the time being, I have to go Hawaii once a year, but I'm also looking forward to having a little break.

I like living in Australia and think it was the right decision for me to return. I have no plans to move back to the US, but I also want to keep my options open. At least for the time being.

Comments

[Fiona]

Snap, Oahu!

For me, Hawaii is cheaper to fly to than Kuala Lumpur or Tokyo over Christmas, sounds more like my kind of place than Fiji, and I've been to Noumea. So a week on the beach, snorkelling and walking for Christmas and my birthday it is. In fact, two Christmases, due to the time difference.

One of these days I plan to do the year overseas thing that all Australians seem to do at some time of another, and take advantange of the new E-3 category visa. Most Australians seem to end up in London, but I never much liked that city (plus I'm a citizen as my parents are British - no challenge there). I'd go Paris but for my terrible language skills, so the US it is.

[CW]

I had to get a new passport recently (name change), and the no-smiling rule was hell. I got to the GPO with my application and photos and they told me I had to get new photos because mine were no good even though I was not really smiling. It was annoying! There must be millions of unnatural looking passport photos out there...

Oh, and thanks for the link :)

[Postman]

smiling is indeed an issue nowadays with passport shots ;-) I recently found this site: www.ePassportPhoto.com in which you can upload your favorite home shot and bake a good set of passport photos.

[Shelly]

Passport photos by ePassportphoto.com is indeed super useful!

[k]

I thought if you are not residing in the USA you are not entitled to keep you permanent resident card even if you do go back within a year . You are supposed to state where you reside ? either the usa or australia you can not be a resident of both is what I was told