One thing that everyone who travels in and out of the United States needs to know about is passport rules and regulations. While the previous laws allowed US citizens to travel to border countries with nothing more than a birth certificate or driver’s license, that is no longer the case. Today, a passport to Canada or Mexico is necessary whenever traveling.
Prior to 2009, the restrictions on travel were not so strict. As long as the border country was the final destination and the travel was going to be solely by land, anyone could pretty much get in and out of the country with nothing more than a drivers license. As long as the identification was government issued and valid, there would be no problems.
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 law would seem to make perfect sense, many of the citizens on the bordering states are up in arms about the inconvenience that has been posed to them. There are outcries that it is ridiculous to have to carry a passport to Canada when we have traveled so freely in the past. These same people are not taking the time to consider that these border countries are the very means by which terrorists have previously entered our country.
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 perfectly understandable why the government is going through such lengths to protect the US borders. Illegal immigration and terrorism is always a hot topic for politicians to banter over during elections times. However, it is also nice to see a small concession that makes it possible for the casual traveler to have a convenient document to use when they would normally need a standard New Passport Card to Canada or Mexico. Learn more about rush pasports today!