A American Passport Card Is The Perfect Passport To Canada or Mexico
One thing that many people are now worried about is the documentation that they will need when traveling on a cruise or to places like Canada or Mexico. For years, we never needed a passport to Canada, but obvious happenings over the last decade have changed all of that. Today, anyone that is leaving the country needs some type of passport card applications documentation.
Prior to June 1, 2009, passports were not required for land travel to U.S. border countries. Passports were often times not required for air travel, provided that the border country was the only destination. Before June of 2009, state issued documents such as drivers licenses or government identification cards were sufficient to re-enter the United States.
The law changed in June 2009 and while it is a good thing, it has shaken up travelers who were unprepared for the new documents that are required. Today, any traveler that is moving in and out of the United States, even if only by land and heading to a border country such as Canada or Mexico, is required to have United States passport card documentation. This is a delayed response to 9/11, but at least it has finally happened.
According to Homeland Security, this is all an attempt at shoring up our borders and making our country a more secure place to live. Many times, illegal immigrants and possible terrorists took advantage of these lax regulations and passed into our borders with barely an eyebrow being raised. Old documentation was not exactly difficult to forge and entry was quite easy for just about anyone.
Although the Homeland Security advantages to this law are self evident, many citizens, specifically those living in border towns, are opposed to the law and cite it as a major inconvenience. Many people think that requiring a person to bring a passport to Canada is absurd. Likewise, many people believe that there are other ways to tighten border security without forcing everyone to carry a passport.
The government continues to maintain that this measure is necessary to beef up our country’s security. However, they have also conceded that these new measures are quite different and know that people do not respond to change very well. For that reason, there are now different types of passport documentation that can be used to make things a little more convenient.
One such innovation is the new passport card. The passport card is a wallet-sized card that displays a persons relevant passport information without the large passport stamp book. A passport card is a valid passport to Canada, Mexico and certain Caribbean Islands for land and sea travel. Passport cards are available to current passport holders for $20.
It should be apparent to everyone that these measures are in place for our safety. We may not like having to carry a US passport card to Canada, but it beats the alternative of having our borders being completely open. Instead, a small inconvenience adds a heightened level of security and a little piece of mind to everyone that lives in the United States. Research passports today!