I just recently got my tourist passport renewed overseas, and BTW it was $110 (yes, prices have gone up) . Your post should have an office that processes both official/SOFA and tourist passports. Turn around time off season is supposed to be two weeks. In the summer, my childrens' tourist passports took two months to get back! But don't worry, you don't have to give up your old one if you are overseas. That is just if you are stateside and do not have a trip planned. For peace of mind, I always start planning 6 months out in getting a new passport....especially if you like to cruise as some cruise lines "require" that your passport is still valid for six more months!
As for the rules of having a SOFA/official vs. tourist passport, you can blame the French on that one. Travel restrictions used to be much more relaxed between the EU borders (and you're right, there are no border controls between EU countries)...BUT, if you get stopped and don't have the "correct" passport, you could get hassled. The French had a tiff with the Americans a few years back, and they are the ones that started this "just tourist passport" thing in retaliation to something the Americans demanded from the French (and they didn't want to do)...or at least that is how the story goes.
In my last job as a tours manager and planner, we inevitably had a few problems and started requiring tourist passports for people who traveled with us...not many problems, but when it's you having the problem...then it's no longer statistics and is serious business! Read this article for the specifics. Technically, the SOFA/official passport is to show that you are allowed to stay in whatever country you are stationed in beyond the three month tourist timeframe (when no visa is required). You can only stay three months in a country with a tourist passport. I believe this is mandated by the host country, so it's possible that different countries may have different timeframes for staying without a visa. So, yes, you may have no problem leaving a country, but it's the coming back that could be an issue. Oh and for Russia, you definitely need to do visa paperwork in addition to your tourist passport, and it is worth it to go thru a reputable agency to get that done rather than to do it yourself. I've gotten asked that question a few times as well so have thrown it out there.
I do know some Americans that carry both around when they travel. I typically just take our tourist passports, as they seem to be the ones that most countries are looking for, when you get stopped. When you arrive in a country, they don't know that you spent more than three months in the country you just left...at least this is how I see it. The only time I personally ever had a problem was at the Frankfurt airport, coming back to Germany, after having left Germany back and forth a few times through the same airport in the weeks before. I only had my tourist passport, and the customs agent was very curious and wanted to know everything about me, finally asking for my military ID card as "proof" of what I told him I was doing. I think this would be the only time I would've needed my SOFA/official passport other than if the US ever had to do mass evacuations from Germany back to the US (such as in the case of world war), and they would obviously prioritize people with official passports over those just holding regular US tourist passports.
Do you carry both passports with you?
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