http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html New Requirements for Travelers a.. January 8, 2007 - (Passport) Requirement applied to all air and sea travel to or from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. b.. January 1, 2008 - (Passport) Requirement extended to all land border crossings as well as air and sea travel. MC content ----> If the only way you will go out of the US is on a bike, you can wait to get your passport until next year.
This issue has been ongoing for several years and crops up periodically in the form of proposed legislation.. It is passed and then the process for watering it down commences.. By the time it either dies away, or becomes law, it stays much the same.. If you will notice, there is some lanuage in the Bill that states.. "either a passport, or accepted documentation of nationality" (something like that).. is incorporated into it.. That wording simply means that nothing will change.. The birth certificate will be acceptable after all the politicking dust settles.. That's where we are, right now and have been for years.. During my last trip, I asked about this issue and was informed that there would be no changes in the foreseeable future.. I am addressing the issue solely in regards to Mexico, as that is where my primary interest lies.. Anyway, I expect the issue to go the way the others have gone in the past.. Seems like our politicians will go to any lengths to corner a few votes in their elections... Regards, Waco.. Bill Walker
I have crossed the border into the US a half dozen times this year on my bike, and have yet to have to produce anything more than a drivers license. And yes that will change in the near future. This discussion has been ongoing for a few years now and anyone who thinks things are not going to change have their heads firmly buried in the sand. You're right the use of a passport for air travel is projected to be mandatory in 07 with travel by land not far behind. The proposal, as it relates to land crossings at US/Canada crossings, has been met with significant resistance from border communities, especially those where their economy relies on the cross border traffic for survival. Massive bottlenecks at border crossings has been predicted. Recently. the concept of an alternate identification card has been floated. Something more stringent than a drivers license or a birth certificate yet not so rigid as a passport. My sense is why re-invent the wheel. If carrying my passport, combined with current technology, allows your country and mine to more closely monitor border traffic, without slowing crossing to a crawl, I am fine with it. We have the right to know who is entering our respective countries and keep out the undesirable. Change is on the horizon. It can't be stopped. Get used to it or get used to riding within your own borders. -- Don RCOS# 7 If Hezbollah was to lay down their arms there would be no war. If the Israelis are to lay down their arms there would be no Israel 2000 - Yamaha Venture Millenium Edition
There will inevitably be exceptions. Consider the kids in Point Roberts; under the new rules, they'll have to show their passport four times per day just to go to school. You really think that'll stand up in Congress? Consider also the objections from all the folks who live on one side of the border and work on the other, such as in Buffalo, Detroit, Vancouver, etc. And once there are exceptions (which the proposed law allows for), they will inevitably grow and grow until most land/sea travelers are exempt again, though the first year or two it'll be rough. When Congressmen representing border areas get hundreds to thousands of complaints _each_, they'll buckle and weaken it -- and those that don't will be replaced with those who will. You've got an odd idea of what's difficult to get. A passport is a lot easier to get these days than a driver's license. Something in between simply doesn't make sense, except from a cost perspective -- the new RFID passports won't be cheap (and the current ones are already pricey). Other than the cost, passports are damn easy to get; all you need is a birth certificate and a photo. To get (or replace) a TX DL, you're likely to spend weeks running back and forth between DPS, SSA, and county offices trying to clear up database problems -- unless you have a passport, which overrides their objections. Your first passport can be had in as little as 3 hours, which was my personal experience, they last a decade (longer than a DL), and having one is just a good idea even if you never leave the country for a huge number of reasons. So we're going to lock down the border crossings with those friendly and law-abiding Canadians, our biggest trading partners, yet not spend any effort stopping the millions of illegals from Mexico who already go around the checkpoints with ease? Yeah, that's a great solution. S
Now back in the late 60's the border at Point Roberts was a timber booth manned by a usually drunk border guard who was sometimes even awake. Considering the geography of the Point I am sure there will be a relaxation there. Intensified border controls, intended to raise NA's security has hurt tourism and trade and bedeviled travelers, leaving dangerous gaps at seaports and airports. I guess how difficult attaining a passport is depends on which side of the border you reside. It is a far more complex process in Canada and takes considerable longer than three hours. Under normal circumstances for a first passport months not hours is the norm. I believe the concept of an independent identification card for US/Canada border crossings is to combine a tighter screening process with new technology intended to make it more difficult to forge. While there are 12 million illegal aliens in the US, many ignorant Congressmen still consider Canada a hotbed of terrorism. This is a ludicrous situation that makes a mockery of US national security. -- Don RCOS# 7 If Hezbollah was to lay down their arms there would be no war. If the Israelis are to lay down their arms there would be no Israel 2000 - Yamaha Venture Millenium Edition
I haven't crossed there myself, so I can't say how it is (on either side) these days, but I've crossed over at Int'l Falls, MN, and that showed me how trivial it was to get across in places. It was a one-lane bridge between two halves of a paper plant, built as an addition to the side of a railroad bridge. There was a tin shack with one border agent on each side. On the Canadian side, the guy said he only stopped us because we had Texas plates and he wanted to hear our accents; he suggested several parks to visit and places to eat and never asked for any ID. Returning to the US side, the guy waved us through without even getting up from his chair. Consider how many employees of that plant pass back and forth (probably several times) each day; tighter restrictions there will mean half the plant will probably shut down and one country or the other is going to lose several hundred jobs (and the only industry in town). It gets even more laughable when you consider crossing the Great Lakes; currently, boaters crossing over are merely requested to check in upon arrival. Change flags when nobody's around and you'll never get stopped. The alternative is to line the border with ships that track each boat on radar; the cost would be ridiculous and it'll never happen. That might be acceptable if it provided an actual increase in land/water border security, but the reality is that it hasn't. If anything, it's hurt security there as much as it's hurt air security. OTOH, most Canadians have one, unlike in the US, because they tend to travel more outside NA. In the US, it's supposed to take about two weeks once you have the documents required. For an expedited application, it usually takes a couple days. I happened to live in Houston at the time, so I went down to their office at 9am and walked out around noon with my passport. If the screening process is going to be as tight or tighter than a passport, then nobody will use it because a passport makes more sense. And, if it's not as tight as a passport, it defeats the purpose of having an alternative. A passport just isn't that tough to get; all you need is a birth certificate, a photo, and $60-100. Well, that's all I had to have back in '98; maybe it's a little tougher now. Besides, as the Times showed, all it takes is a couple hundred bucks to get a forgery on the streets of NYC that's good enough to pass visual inspection. Even at airports, neither the US nor Canada runs your passport through the computer if it's from the US or Canada; they just take a look at the photo, ask the purpose and duration of the trip, and wave you through (unless you give a wrong answer). While Canada used to have similar entrance requirements as the US and we could rely on anyone in Canada being okay to enter the US as well, they haven't been tracking us very well in the last decade -- with good reason. The US needs to quit pissing off people instead of worrying about how to keep people from following through on that hatred. Any attempt at securing the border needs to start with stopping the illegals; after all, if a bunch of uneducated, starving peasants can walk around the checkpoints with ease, what's the point in making the checkpoints tougher to get through? Unfortunately, you say that in Congress and the media will be all over you for being "racist", despite the fact that terrorists can get across just as easily as other illegals. And don't get me started about the policy of giving all Cubans political asylum if they can get to dry land; those people obviously don't have passports either. Any terrorist who bothered to learn Spanish could mix in with them, just like the Mexican illegals, and get in no matter what we did at checkpoints. S
ROTFLMAO...like that will stop me going to Canada OR coming back. Ever hear of a topological map? Not to mention I know of several places where there is NO automated cameras etc and never will be because of farmers owning land on both sides of the border. Living less than 60 miles from said Canadian border gives me some insights that the idiots on FOX etc could never acquire. **** to patriot act...I think for my self and do NOT allow the self enfranchised chiseling THEIVES in congress to think for me. Unlike those who think these changes are good I know for a fact they are the next step in process to further the socialization started in 1930 by FDR and his toadies in the republican party. H.S.A. since 1492? It's failed for over 500 years...what makes the collectivists now running America think they can do better? That bill bailed last year anyway but I just wanted to knock some sense into the senseless. OBTW hope y'all are doing well. My house is MAKING money for me so I just lounge about, find new ways to collapse the system by following the rules. -- Keith Schiffner Assistant to the Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry of Silly Walks. "terrorist organization" is a redundancy oh and Billy, that's Mister Asshole to a toothless tool like you...hope you're feeling well.
