The new passport rules between The USA and Canada

[cuty-pie]

Srarting this month air travelers who are citizens of Canada,Mexico and Bermuda,as well as US citizensreturning home,must with few exceptions display passports to enter the United States.


The new rule brings the Canadians under the same rule that apply to all other travelers worldwide.

[crazylover]

Envoyé par cuty-pie Srarting this month air travelers who are citizens of Canada,Mexico and Bermuda,as well as US citizensreturning home,must with few exceptions display passports to enter the United States. The new rule brings the Canadians under the same rule that apply to all other travelers worldwide.

Lol a correction:
- Displaying the passport applies as of January 23, 2007 and applies ONLY to Air travellers to the United States.. Highway border crossing is still the same.

- This new rule does not bring Canadians under the same rule that applies to travellers worldwide because Canadians do NOT need a biometric passport. A regular old passport is fine for air travel to the US for Canadians.. Same as Americans returning to the US.

The reason for exempting Canadians and returning Americans from this law is that americans are canadians are both accessible via the shared database at the Border Protection of US Customs or CBSA. Therefore, they don't need a biometric passport to verify your identity as a canadian or returning american since they can find all about you on their computers.

[cuty-pie]

There are 70.000 Canadians "snowbirds" in the united states,mostly in Florida,and concern has been expressed that some may have arrived without their passports......starting next week those traveling by air would be required to produce passports when leaving the states


"The main point is to be able to identify and certify the Citizenship of everyone crossing the nation's borders"...officials have said.


the bigger hurdle is scheduled to begin as soon as January 2008,when passports will be required for travelers by land and sea.

[crazylover]

Lol that means the canadian consulates in Florida and other states will be busy issuing passports or travel passes for those canadians who live in the states to get back home.. lol they can't ask for help from the federal goverrnment because the federal passport offices in Canada are also extremely busy issuing passports as well.

One issue that was raised before was on border crossing when they decide to implement it on highway border crossing as well. Because there you only go through one-customs office (either canadian or american). Canada did not apply that law which means that americans that would come to Canada via highway would not need passport to enter. However, coming back to the states they would ask them for their passports. So that was a conflict they were trying to resolve, especially since Canada does not want to apply that law on canadian side of the borders.

I heard last year that the Democrats promised that if they win the elections they would put some efforts into cancelling (or not passing) this law in the states. Let's wait and see what happens.