If you realise your passport has expired and you're supposed to go away soon, you should contact the authority that is in charge of issuing passports in your country. As long as the date of travel isn't too close, they might be able to arrange for an emergency passport to be issued ...
A visa is a permit issued by a government authority in accordance with its national laws to foreigners who apply to enter, exit, or transit through the country. According to the principles of international law, any sovereign state has the right to independently decide whether to allow foreigners...
The second character can be assigned by the issuing country to distinguish different types of passports. If unused a < is assigned. The United States, at least in the cases I've seen, doesn't use this field. In the example above there is a <, apparently the fictional country of Utopia...