Flying to Mexico or Canada? You'll soon need a passport

By Carol Pucci

Seattle Times Travel writer

If you're planning to go to Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean by car, ferry or cruise ship soon, relax. It will be a while before you'll be required to have a passport to get back into the United States.

But if you're planning on flying this winter, or even hopping a seaplane to Victoria, apply for your passport now, and get them for your kids. You'll need one as of Jan. 8, 2007.

Passport information

To find out how to get a passport, see the U.S. State Department's Web site at www.travel.state.gov or call the U.S. National Passport Information Center at 877-487-2778.

Where: If you're renewing a passport, you can do it by mail, but if you're getting a passport for the first time, you have to apply in person. For a list of post offices and other facilities where passports are processed, type in your ZIP code at www.iafdb.travel.state.gov.

Cost: First-time passports for those 16 and older cost $97, not including photos. For those under 16, the cost is $82. Renewals are $67. Time: Count on about six weeks processing time. Expedited service is available for an extra fee.

Emergency service: Passports are issued by appointment only at the Seattle Passport Agency in the Henry Jackson Federal Building, 915 Second Ave., Seattle. If you're traveling within two weeks and need emergency service, call 877-487-2778 to make an appointment.

Congress has delayed the deadline for requiring passports for land and sea travel but will stick to a plan to require passports for air travel starting next year.

Currently, U.S. citizens are required to show proof of citizenship — either a passport or a birth certificate and photo ID.

The new deadline for land border and sea crossings, including travel aboard ferries and cruises ships, has been extended to as late as June 2009 to give the government time to come up with an alternative document, such as a wallet-sized, biometric security card that would cost around $50 compared to $97 for an adult passport.

June 2009 is the outside deadline. A Homeland Security spending bill passed by Congress before it adjourned last Friday allows the Bush administration to set an earlier date if it can meet several criteria including perfecting pass-card technology, coming up with some provision for children traveling in groups with adults (such as school groups), installing equipment and training agents.

"It could be mid-2008," said Rick Webster of the Travel Industry Association, a travel trade group that lobbied for the delay. Only about 23 percent of Americans have passports.

"Our contention is that they ought to implement this as soon as practical, but it takes time to educate the traveling public, explain the options and be prepared to go.

"We don't want chaos at the borders."

The proposed wallet-sized cards would be imbedded with radio-frequency identification (RFID) information. But the application process would be the same as for a passport. And there are privacy concerns.

The cards' information can be scanned from 30 to 50 feet away. While that makes it easier for customs and border agents to process travelers and their documents, critics contend that it also makes it easier for thieves with their own electronic scanners to steal information.

Pushing for tighter border controls has been the U.S. Department of Homeland Security which has been charged with beefing up security since the 2001 terrorist attacks

The new rules will apply to U.S. citizens and citizens of Canada, Mexico and most Caribbean countries who are entering the U.S. and are not now required to have a passport.

Noncitizens, such as permanent legal residents (green-card holders), will continue to be able to cross the borders with their usual documentation.

Carol Pucci: 206-464-3701 or cpucci@seattletimes.com .

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