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 Travel & Outdoors | September 2006 
Passport, Por Favor
 Newswire
| | The Jan. 8 deadline for air and sea travel is less than four months away now. |
Is Mexico, Canada, or the Caribbean in your travel plans next year? Well, if you're expecting to travel to those spots by sea or air and you don't have a valid passport, you should consider a trip to a local passport office. Pronto.
The U.S. State Department estimates 70 million American citizens now hold passports. Historically, Americans traveling to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean and a few other destinations in the Americas haven't needed passports. Birth certificates and driver's licenses were good enough to prove their identities to foreign - and American officials.
But starting Jan. 8 that changes. Frank Moss, deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, explains.
"A passport or one of a handful of other documents will be necessary to travel by air or sea to Mexico, the Caribbean or Canada," he says.
Military IDs are also acceptable.
The push to get passports in the hands of international travelers is part of an effort to exercise tighter control over who gets into the United States. In 2008, as it now stands, the passport requirement will even extend to folks entering the U.S. by land from Mexico and Canada.
The Jan. 8 deadline for air and sea travel is less than four months away now. And it typically takes at least six-to-eight weeks to get a passport. Congress could push back the deadline. But don't count on it. That's the counsel of the state department's Moss.
"My advice to a traveler would be: Be safe rather than sorry," says Moss. "It's a great time to go ahead to apply for a passport. And not only does it take care of your travel this winter but it does so for years to come."
The new rules apply to children, too. They must have their own passports. For children under 16, passports cost $82. They're good for 5 years. For citizens 16 years of age and older, a passport costs $97 and is good for ten years.
George Wozniak, owner of Hobbit Travel, says people accustomed to scooping up last-minute travel bargains better keep the new passport requirements in mind.
"It's a big deal," he says. "Many, many people travel spur-of-the-moment on seven-day Caribbean cruises. They go to Cancun, Puerto Vallarta ... and by the way it includes Canada. So people who like to go up there fishing they're going to have a problem, too. You can imagine how busy the passport offices across the country will be as we approach this deadline."
First-time applicants must apply for passports in person. That requirement also holds for folks with passports that expired more than 15 years ago. Many existing passport holders, however, can renew passports by mail. |
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