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New rules in the new year. (Steve Osman / Los Angeles Times) |
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DO travelers need a passport? Ask a simple question, get a complex answer.
If you're reentering the U.S. from Canada or Mexico by plane or ship, you will need a passport.
If you're coming by land, you won't. You'll need something else.
That's the latest from the Department of Homeland Security, which last week announced a new, less costly security ID for land crossings.
The People Access Security Service card, still under development by Homeland Security and the State Department, is expected to ease land border crossings to and from Canada and Mexico, and will be cheaper than a passport.
The card "will be particularly useful for those citizens in border communities who regularly cross northern and southern borders every day," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said last week.
Chertoff described the card as "essentially like the kind of driver's license or other simple card identification that almost all of us carry in our wallets."
Details on obtaining the new ID card had not been released as of the Travel section's deadline Tuesday.
The card, which the State Department hopes will be ready by the end of this year, is part of stricter border security measures mandated under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.
The act requires that by Jan. 1, 2008, all Americans use a passport or other form of secure ID to reenter the U.S.
Under a State Department plan, by 2007, some Americans will not be able to use a driver's license or birth certificate to reenter the U.S.; if they are traveling by air or sea they will need a passport.
Chertoff also said that by 2007, the U.S. would "transition exclusively to e-passports" containing biometric information. Late last year, the U.S. began rolling out electronic passports, which contain machine-readable computer chips embedded on the back page.
The chip contains the same data as on the photo page — a digital photo, name, date and place of birth, nationality — plus security and anti-fraud features, the State Department said.
*
Now's the time
IF you don't have a passport yet, "Start the application process early," advises Laura Tischler, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, because the State Department is expecting to handle more applications this year.
From Jan. 1 to Sept. 31, 2005, the department processed more than 10 million passports. That number is expected to increase by 2 million this year, Tischler says.
Passport offices usually get the most applications from January to July, and processing a new application takes about six weeks.
See the State Department website, http://www.travel.state.gov , for a list of acceptable documentation and other requirements. Click on "Passports."
For people 16 and older, obtaining a new passport costs $97, including a passport fee of $55, an execution fee of $30 and a $12 security fee. Passports usually are valid for 10 years.
If you're reentering the U.S. from Canada or Mexico by plane or ship, you will need a passport.
If you're coming by land, you won't. You'll need something else.
That's the latest from the Department of Homeland Security, which last week announced a new, less costly security ID for land crossings.
The People Access Security Service card, still under development by Homeland Security and the State Department, is expected to ease land border crossings to and from Canada and Mexico, and will be cheaper than a passport.
The card "will be particularly useful for those citizens in border communities who regularly cross northern and southern borders every day," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said last week.
Chertoff described the card as "essentially like the kind of driver's license or other simple card identification that almost all of us carry in our wallets."
Details on obtaining the new ID card had not been released as of the Travel section's deadline Tuesday.
The card, which the State Department hopes will be ready by the end of this year, is part of stricter border security measures mandated under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.
The act requires that by Jan. 1, 2008, all Americans use a passport or other form of secure ID to reenter the U.S.
Under a State Department plan, by 2007, some Americans will not be able to use a driver's license or birth certificate to reenter the U.S.; if they are traveling by air or sea they will need a passport.
Chertoff also said that by 2007, the U.S. would "transition exclusively to e-passports" containing biometric information. Late last year, the U.S. began rolling out electronic passports, which contain machine-readable computer chips embedded on the back page.
The chip contains the same data as on the photo page — a digital photo, name, date and place of birth, nationality — plus security and anti-fraud features, the State Department said.
*
Now's the time
IF you don't have a passport yet, "Start the application process early," advises Laura Tischler, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, because the State Department is expecting to handle more applications this year.
From Jan. 1 to Sept. 31, 2005, the department processed more than 10 million passports. That number is expected to increase by 2 million this year, Tischler says.
Passport offices usually get the most applications from January to July, and processing a new application takes about six weeks.
See the State Department website, http://www.travel.state.gov , for a list of acceptable documentation and other requirements. Click on "Passports."
For people 16 and older, obtaining a new passport costs $97, including a passport fee of $55, an execution fee of $30 and a $12 security fee. Passports usually are valid for 10 years.
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