7DaysinParadise
Travel => General Travel => Topic started by: Bulldog on January 08, 2009, 08:50:20 PM
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WASHINGTON - Nearly 740,000 Americans have ordered passport cards, a new document being offered by the State Department to speed border crossings by U.S. citizens travelling to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Beginning in June 2009, travellers will be required to present documents proving both citizenship and identity when entering the U.S. through a land or sea border. For Americans who drive to Canada or Mexico or cruise regularly to the Caribbean, but who do not expect to fly abroad, the passport card is a cheaper, smaller, more portable alternative to a conventional passport book.
The card is especially popular with Americans who live in border states where it's not unusual to drive back and forth to Canada or Mexico. Residents of four border states - Texas, California, Michigan and New York - lead the country in the number of residents holding passport cards, according to Rima J. Vydmantas, spokeswoman for the State Department's Consular Affairs Bureau.
The passport card is the size of a credit card or driver's licence, and has a photo and identification information printed on it, like a driver's licence. It also contains a chip with a unique number that allows border officials to instantly retrieve your data from a government database.
It's not valid for air travel.
Passport cards are good for 10 years and cost US$45 ($35 for children under 16). Applications can be made at any passport-processing site. If you already have a passport but want the card anyway because of the convenient size or quick scanning, it's only $20 and can be ordered by mail.
For details on how and where to get a passport card, visit http://www.travel.state.gov.
Processing time for applications for both passport books and passport cards are about three weeks for routine applications. Expedited service is not available for passport cards, but for passport books, expedited service takes about two weeks.
This story was posted on Tue, January 6, 2009
http://travel.canoe.ca/Travel/News/2009/01/06/7930891-ap.html
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I do hope Canada follows this and has their own ID card for those who drive into the states :icon_thumright:
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If all you want to do is drive into the USA, then get a NEXUS card - $85 for 5 years and you can come and go with no problem.
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The Nexus card won't supercede the June 2009 requirement for passports when driving into the US will it?
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The nexus card is an extention of your passport, you will still need your passport, but the nexus card will speed up the border process from what I understand.