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 Travel & Outdoors | October 2006 
New Policy Requires Passport
 Antonio O. Garza - U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
| | Antonio Garza, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico |
Americans are natural travelers, a quality you would expect to find in abundance in a nation made great through immigration.
The American character has always included an adventurous streak and a touch of wanderlust. It is not by accident that our national icons include Lewis and Clark, the Pony Express Riders, the Wright Brothers, Amelia Earhart, and astronauts, among others.
Air travel for Americans is now as routine as long distance bus travel was one generation ago.
Price competition, improved technology, and "open skies" agreements allowing international carriers to compete in formerly closed markets, enable us to visit cities and regions that used to require overland voyages lasting days or even longer.
International air travel is now at the heart of a way of life that allows us to go anywhere for business, for tourism, or to maintain family ties.
The United States government has both a legal and moral obligation to protect the airlines and passengers who travel to and from our country.
Passports are a critical tool that law enforcement authorities use to prevent criminals and others from making false claims to U.S. citizenship.
The U.S. passport of today hardly resembles its predecessors.
In August 2006, the U.S. State Department began issuing "electronic passports," containing chips that store the same information that is written in the passport.
PASSPORT FRAUD IS MAIN TARGET OF INITIATIVE
This innovation will dramatically reduce passport fraud, and protect us from those who seek to enter the United States under false pretenses for the purpose of doing us harm.
Starting on Jan. 8, 2007, all travelers to the United States - including U.S. citizens - will need valid passports in order to enter the United States by air.
This includes Americans who live in Mexico and formerly traveled to the United States with only their birth certificates, driver´s licenses, or other documents that airlines once allowed U.S. passengers to present to fly on U.S.- bound aircraft.
This new passport requirement is just one part of a dynamic U.S. government plan designed to improve safety and security in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
Officially called the "Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative," this new approach to travel will require all of us in North America to have passports in our possession when we visit our neighbors.
We estimate that the Initiative will be fully implemented no later than 2009, the year in which Americans will need a passport to engage in any form of cross-border travel, whether on foot, boat, or vehicle.
We have extra personnel in our Embassy and consulates on hand, ready to accept passport applications.
Since processing a passport application can take from four to six weeks, we urge Americans who live in Mexico to apply as soon as possible, in advance of the Jan. 8 deadline.
If you are a U.S. citizen whose passport has expired or is about to expire, or if you have never had one, now is the time to apply.
Click HERE for more details about how our consular sections can help you obtain the passport which you will need to return to the United States.
On behalf of the United States government, thank you for helping us make our country safer.
Antonio O. Garza is the U.S. ambassador to Mexico. |
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