Get Your Passport, You’re Going To Need It!
U.S. to Require Passports for Nearly All
Nearly all air travelers entering the U.S. will be required to show passports beginning Jan. 23, including returning Americans and people from Canada and other nations in the Western Hemisphere.
The requirement marks a change for Americans, Canadians, Bermudians and some Mexicans.
Currently, U.S. citizens returning from other countries in the hemisphere are not required to present passports but must show other proof of citizenship such as driver’s licenses or birth certificates.
Visitors from most countries in the hemisphere are required to show passports. However, people from Canada, Bermuda – and those from Mexico who enter the U.S. frequently and have special border-crossing cards – have been allowed to use other forms of identification, including driver’s licenses.
“Right now, there are 8,000 different state and local entities in the U.S. issuing birth certificates and driver’s licenses,” Chertoff said. Having to distinguish phony from real in so many different documents “puts an enormous burden on our Customs and Border inspectors,” he said.
Under a separate program, Homeland Security plans to require all travelers, including Americans, entering the U.S. by land or sea to show a passport or an alternative security identification card starting as early as January 2008.
November 22, 2006 - 03:21 PM on November 22nd, 2006
I hope the passport issuing office is geared up to handle this so people don’t have to wait 4 months to get theirs.