Getting Started with Visas and Immigration

Need to know for Exit Out of Country

As you are reading through the other pages about possible destinations, there are some common To Knows about leaving the United States either to stay in another country for a limited time or to immigrate. Terms you will be familiar with after reading this are:

Difference between “Expat” and “Immigrant”
Enhanced Drivers License (EDL)
Passport
Apostille
Specific documents and certificates
- Birth certificates
- Marriage certificates
- Divorce certificates / certificates of dissolution
- Court order of name change
Various forms of visas and visitor permits

This document also covers some of the generic information relevant to:

First cell phone
First bank account
First address

This page does not get into the nuance for the specifics of these, as they will vary from country to country. Please check your country pages for what is needed for an individual country.

Because this deadline is coming up in less than 6 months:



⚠️ IMPORTANT: the deadline for having a compliant REAL ID is May 7, 2025. If you do not have compliant ID by this time you may not be able to fly or enter certain federal facilities, even if your pre-existing ID is not expired.

Please refer to the #REAL ID section for more information.

Are you an immigrant or an expat?

Knowing which category you intend to be in, and for how long, is important as it will help guide which types of what documentation you will need.

An expat is someone who lives out of the country (or countries) they are citizens of for an extended period, aiming for a temporary stay.
An immigrant is someone who aims for a permanent stay in a different country, which may result in citizenship of that country.

Specific examples:

If you plan to live in Canada for 2 years and return to the United States, you are an expat.
If you plan to start the DAFT process as a pathway to citizenship in the Netherlands, you are an immigrant.

Circumstances will vary (described below), but generally speaking expats require less documentation than immigrants.

Since the situation in the United States is rapidly evolving, it is up to you to decide what path is best for you. It is likely beneficial to have the minimum documentation that you need at all times, so that you can leave quickly if needed, but also plan to have as many of the immigration documents on hand as possible in case that changes.

Minimal documentation to keep with you at all times

Whether you intend to be an expat or an immigrant, you should have a couple pieces of documentation on you at all times. Those documents are:

Your passport
Your drivers license or state ID

Many countries allow you to enter the country with a passport as a visitor, though some require visas and visitor permits. For specifics, please read the documentation for the country you intend to go to. If your intended country does require additional paperwork for entry, it is prudent to make a backup plan to be able to travel from the United States to a country that only requires your passport so you can leave at any time and make additional plans from there.

Additional documentation you should have with you at all times

If you either intend to immigrate, or want the option to immigrate as a backup plan, you will need to have additional documents with you at all times once you have copies of them. We recommend having the copies in multiple, so that if you lose one you haven't lost the only copy that you have. These documents include:

Your birth certificate
If you have legally changed your name, the court order indicating your legal name change
Any marriage or divorce certificates (as applies)

It is important to have certified copies and as many as possible apostilled (more on this in a moment).

Occasionally when you present your documents the receiving agency only needs a copy that they then make, returning the original to you. Sometimes they need to retain the original. As part of whatever application process they should tell you which is the case, and if not then ask. Between this, and having some documents with apostilled and non-apostilled copies, it is good to have 3-5 copies in total. An example pattern would be to have 5 birth certificates, 2 apostilled and 3 not. Once you get down to one document in any category (e.g. only one non-apositlled birth certificate), you should plan to request more.

What is an apostille?

An apostille can be thought of as similar to a notarized document, and is different from a certified copy. An apostille is specifically used for countries in the 1961 Hague Convention Treaty. (Full list is linked on page, but most if not all countries on our list apply here.) The purpose of the apostille is to give the document the ability to be used in a country other than the originating country. (For more information about this, please read the Wikipedia page.)

How do I request copies and apostilles?

All documents, their certified copies, and apostilles are issued by their state of origin. So if, for example, you were born in NJ but married in NY, then your birth certificate (and its apostille) would be issued by the Department of Health in NJ and your marriage certificate (and its apostille) would be issued by the Department of Health in NY.

When you request your records always request certified copies. The biggest expense tends to be requesting the first copy, the subsequent copies (on the same request) are significantly cheaper. As indicated, it is wise to have multiple copies so that you can 1 ) have multiple copies that are both apostilled and non-apostilled for same document, 2 ) so you have more copies available in case one needs to be submitted as part of an application process and 3 ) so that there is a copy with you at all times and the ability to store others separately as needed.

When you request a copy of your records you cannot request them apostilled. You need to wait for the certified copies to arrive, and then separately send one or more of them to be apostilled as a separate request. This request can be done either in the appropriate physical office, if you reside in the state you are requesting records from, or by mail.

As the requests are separate, it is important to request these documents as soon as possible. Many states have multi-month waiting periods to get copies as they are inundated with requests, and since the apostille request is a second request, that only compounds the timeline until you have all of your documents.

What if I'm already out of the country?

If you are already out of the country by the time you need to request these documents, or there is a possibility that you might be by the time they arrive, you should have the documents either mailed to a secure mailing address or a trusted person. For a trusted person, make sure they are someone that you trust without question, you're giving them access to your legal documents.

For secure mailing addresses, you can look into services that will send documents to your new address overseas or set up something like a PO Box that a trusted person can check for you. If you're using a service, call the service to verify that they can forward that type of mail. Many types of legal documents cannot be forwarded. This also means if you register an address change to forward your mail, like you would with a normal move, the regular postal service will not forward these documents (nor your tax documents, as an aside).

Different forms of identification

There are different forms of identification that you will need not only to exit the United States, but to potentially re-enter that if that situation arises for any reason.

Enhanced Drivers Licenses, Drivers Licenses, and REAL ID

Enhanced Drivers Licenses

Enhanced Drivers Licenses can be used for some border crossings by land. Specifically from the DOH:

Enhanced Drivers Licenses (EDLs) are state-issued enhanced drivers licenses that provide proof of identity and U.S. citizenship when crossing the U.S. border in a vehicle.

This means that there are some circumstances when crossing a land border you can use an Enhanced Drivers License in lieu of a passport. That said, unless you cross the border regularly (e.g. If you live near Canada or Mexico), it is in your best interest to have your passport ready at all times so the nuance of this doesn’t negatively impact you.

Although Enhanced Drivers Licenses frequently are referred to as a REAL ID, as they are a type of REAL ID, not all REAL IDs are Enhanced Drivers Licenses. Notably, a California REAL ID is not an Enhanced Drivers License. (More on REAL IDs later.) The only states with Enhanced Drivers Licenses are at the time of this writing are:

Michigan
Minnesota
New York
Vermont
Washington

Please check the Department of Homeland Security Enhanced Drivers License web page for the most updated list.

Drivers Licenses and State IDs

Drivers licenses and State IDs are issued through your state of residence. You can usually acquire these by appointment at your local DMV office.

REAL ID

⚠️ IMPORTANT: the deadline for having a compliant REAL ID is May 7, 2025. If you do not have compliant ID by this time you may not be able to fly or enter certain federal facilities, even if your pre-existing ID is not expired.

REAL IDs are not a physical form of ID, although as mentioned above some forms of ID are directly referred to as “REAL ID”. REAL ID is any form of identification that is compliant with the REAL ID Act from 2005.

REAL IDs are limited to drivers licenses or state IDs. This means you only need to worry about updating your drivers license or state ID as part of this Act, not the other forms of ID mentioned on this page.

Passports

Passports are the form of identification that shows you are a United States citizen and will show your:

Legal name
Citizenship
Place of birth
Date of birth

If you already have a passport and have travelled out of the country, there will be stamps in your passport to reflect this travel.

Every person in your family that plans to leave the United States will need a passport. This not only means a spouse or blood relatives that might travel with you, but also if you are a parent or guardian and your children will be traveling with you, they should all have passports regardless of their age. (To be explicit: yes, even infants.)

You obtain a passport by submitting an application. As of the time of this writing, the application consists of:

Your current legal name
Your prior legal name(s)
- This means not only legal name changes by court order but also by marriage or divorce
Your current physical address
Your social security number
Your email address
Your primary phone number (this can be a cell number)
A passport photo
- These have specific requirements for face in frame and background. You can have a passport photo taken at a variety of locations, including some pharmacy / convenience stores and USPS.

Passport applications can be submitted online or by mail.