North American travel and passports

[MontrealMum]

I considered posting this just in Oh Canada!, but realized that it probably has implications for all of North America, so figured I'd post it here instead.

Today, we received a flyer through our door from Passport Canada reminding everyone that starting June 9, 2009 a passport will be needed for travel to the US. This is a regulation that was supposed to take effect last year, but was pushed back due to the amount of people that were not able to get one in time for the original deadline.

I would imagine that if Canadians need passports to travel to the US, Americans are going to need them to travel to Canada, and back again. If anyone has the definitive answer on that, post it here. Even not knowing for sure if the inverse is true, I figured it'd be good for everyone to get thinking now about applications since the paperwork can take some time.

[kayte]

Yes, we need passport too --to go anywhere---even Mexico. IF you are driving --to Canada or Mexico you can use a passport card (cheaper, faster to get, looks like a driver's license) but anywhere by plane you need a passport book.

[bubbaray]

Yes, that's a definite go. I don't think it will have a huge effect for Canadians, more Canadians have passports than Americans IIRC.

It will have an effect for people wanting to travel while waiting for their passports to be renewed. We recently travelled to the US with DH just having his DL and birth certificate, not a problem. In the future, we'll have to plan more carefully when to renew, KWIM?

[bubbaray]

Yes, we need passport too --to go anywhere---even Mexico. IF you are driving --to Canada or Mexico you can use a passport card (cheaper, faster to get, looks like a driver's license) but anywhere by plane you need a passport book.


Our province is trying to do this -- have the DL have "passport-like" identifiers embedded in it. A smart DL. I'm not sure that its happened nor that it will happen in time for June 2009, though.

[schums]

As a US citizen, if you are driving, you don't need a passport YET -- that goes into effect next summer. All you need is a driver's license or other gov issued picture ID and birth certificate. We were in Canada a couple weeks ago, and while we have passports, tons of others going through the lines did not.

If you're flying, then you already need the passport.

[MontrealMum]

That's the reason I posted this, because this was all supposed to be in effect some time ago - driving and flying, and the driving passport regulation was delayed since so many people did not have passports and the offices were flooded. So, now summer 2009 is a definite for passports all around.