Passport Card Applications – Apply For A Pass Port Today
One common passport question that often arises for people considering international travel is the question of whether or not a passport is required for border nations. In America, this question applies to Mexico and Canada. Currently, the answer is yes, a passport to Canada or Mexico is needed when traveling. Anyone thinking of traveling outside the US borders will need a valid passport.
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 driver’s licenses or government identification cards were sufficient to re-enter the United States.
The new laws that went into effect in June 2009 make it mandatory for any traveler, even those going to border countries or cruises will now need passport documentation to get back into the country. The events of September 11th have changed the world forever. It may have taken a while for the actual law to go into place, but make no mistake that those terrorist events were the inspiration for travel laws like this.
According to the government, these rules were put in place to tighten up our security and make the country a safer place. Previously, illegal immigrants would travel into Canada or Mexico and pass through the borders fairly easily. Driver’s licenses and birth certificates were fairly easy to forge and the new documentation makes it much more difficult to gain entry to the United States.
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 stick to their guns in that this definitely improves the overall security of the country. While no system is perfect, it does at least add one more safe guard to be in place to attempt to prevent illegal entry into the country. However, they do recognize that getting and carrying a passport can be somewhat of an inconvenience and there are new measures in place to help with this.
One such innovation is the new passport card. The passport card is a wallet-sized card that displays a person’s 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 is clear that rush USA passports will be required to enter border countries from now on. Given the obvious national security advantages, it seems quite unlikely that the U.S. government will have any reason to change these laws in the near future. Luckily, innovations like the USA Passport Card make the mandatory carrying of a passport to Canada and Mexico a bit more convenient.
