Advertising

The Seattle Times Company

NWjobs | NWautos | NWhomes | NWsource | Free Classifieds | seattletimes.com

The Seattle Times

Travel / Outdoors


Our network sites seattletimes.com | Advanced

Originally published Monday, January 5, 2009 at 1:53 PM

Comments (2)     E-mail article     Print view

Passport cards popular for Canada/Mexico travel

The cheaper, simpler passport card is proving popular in border states, including Washington, as an alternative to a conventional passport for land and sea border crossings with Canada and Mexico.

Nearly 740,000 Americans have ordered passport cards, a new document being offered by the U.S. State Department to speed border crossings by U.S. citizens traveling to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Beginning in June 2009, travelers will be required to present documents proving both citizenship and identity when entering the U.S. through a land or sea border. (A passport is already required for all international air travel.) A birth certificate and driver's license, currently used by many travelers, will no longer be sufficient for adults crossing land or sea borders.

For Americans who drive to Canada or Mexico or cruise regularly to the Caribbean, but who do not expect to fly abroad, the passport card is a cheaper, smaller, more portable alternative to a conventional passport.

The passport card is especially popular with Americans who live in border states with Mexico or Canada, including Washington.

The passport card is the size of a credit card or driver's license, and has a photo and identification information printed on it, like a driver's license. It also contains a chip with a unique number that allows border officials to instantly retrieve your data from a government database. It's not valid for international air travel.

Passport cards are good for 10 years and cost $45 ($35 for children under 16). Applications can be made at any passport-processing site. If you already have a passport but want the card anyway because of the convenient size or quick scanning, it's only $20 and can be ordered by mail.

For details on how and where to get a passport card, see www.travel.state.gov.

Processing time for applications for both passport books and passport cards are about three weeks for routine applications. Expedited service is not available for passport cards, but for passport books, expedited service takes about two weeks.

Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company

More Travel headlines...

E-mail article Print view      Share:    Digg     Newsvine

Comments
Why not make all Washington State drivers licenses compatible with the passport card system so it could serve dual purposes? It amuses me that one...  Posted on January 6, 2009 at 11:45 AM by gatorade. Jump to comment
In listening to a nice lady on Coast to coast, she talked about how these would send a signal for some 30 feet with these things, with all your...  Posted on January 6, 2009 at 7:50 AM by paintking. Jump to comment

advertising

Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers

Way down upon Australia's Murray River

Big deals Down Under, where summer is winter

Reader postcard from Nara, Japan

See Yosemite in a Tin Lizzie

Advertising

Video

AP Video

Entertainment | Top Video | World | Offbeat Video | Sci-Tech

Marketplace

 
Most read
Most commented
Most e-mailed
 
 
Advertising