Travel&Vacation

As promised, the U.S. State Department has started to accept applications for its new passport card that travelers can use in place of a full passport for land and sea travel between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, and the Caribbean. Presumably, cards will be available before the final passport requirement goes into effect sometime this year. In the meantime, you will need a passport or government-issued ID, plus proof of citizenship (generally a birth certificate), to re-enter the United States. Use of the card will be limited to border crossings by land or sea (including cruise ships); it will not be acceptable for air travel.

The initial fee is $45 for adults and $35 for children—about half the cost of a full passport. If you have a passport about to expire, you can apply for a card as a passport renewal for $20. The cards will have the same validity as full passports: 10 years for adults, five years for children 15 and younger. Cards will be mailed in spring 2008.

All this fuss is a result of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), enacted in response to heightened security concerns. It requires travelers returning from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, and the Caribbean to present WHTI-compliant documents for re-entry into the United States. And until now, a full passport has been the only compliant document available to most travelers. A full-passport requirement went into effect last year for air travelers returning from these areas, and that requirement remains in effect. The purpose of the new card is to provide a simpler document for land and sea travelers—especially folks who live in border areas and cross frequently.

The new card is equipped with an RFID (radio frequency identification) chip that will link directly to a database when a border agent passes it near a reader. The State Department claims that the chip itself will contain no personal information. However, many are concerned about long-term security and privacy issues with RFID smart cards—an issue that isn’t going to go away anytime soon.

The main advantages of the card are that it costs less than a full passport and it’s smaller—the size of a credit card—and easier to carry than a passport. The disadvantage, of course, is that it’s for a limited area of use.

Clearly, for many travelers, the new card will not substitute for a full passport. I see it as useful mainly for travelers who cross a border frequently or those who know their only international trips for the next 10 years will be land or sea crossings from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, or the Caribbean. If you fit this pattern, you can apply at any of the 9,000 places in the United States where you apply for a regular passport. For more details, log onto the State Department website, then click on “U.S. Passport Card” in the upper left of the screen.

One additional reminder about travel to Canada: I wrote earlier about Canada’s refusal to allow entry to U.S. citizens who were ever convicted for DUI. I’ve heard some recent stories that the Canadians, if anything, are getting tougher rather than easier on U.S. travelers with prior felony convictions. And you really don’t want to travel all the way to the Canadian border, or arrive at a Canadian airport, only to be told, “Go back; you can’t come in with that record.” If, at any time in your adult life, you’ve been convicted of a felony—any felony, not just DUI—I suggest you contact a Canadian consulate or the Canadian Embassy to make sure you can get in, or to find out what you have to do before you receive permission to enter.