Thread: Passport cards proving popular in border states

Passport cards proving popular in border states

Mon Jan 5, 2:41 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Nearly 740,000 Americans have ordered passport cards, a new document being offered by the 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. 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 book.

The card is especially popular with Americans who live in border states where it's not unusual to drive back and forth to Canada or Mexico. Residents of four border states — Texas, California, Michigan and New York — lead the country in the number of residents holding passport cards, according to Rima J. Vydmantas, spokeswoman for the State Department's Consular Affairs Bureau.

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 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, visit http://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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20090 ... port_cards

I have decided that I will never leave this country again, even for a vacation. I need to stay here, spend my money here to support local business, fight for untainted imports and keep an eye on the powers-that-be before they totally destroy what little we have left as Americans.

Originally Posted by vortex

I have decided that I will never leave this country again, even for a vacation. I need to stay here, spend my money here to support local business, fight for untainted imports and keep an eye on the powers-that-be before they totally destroy what little we have left as Americans.

Take a good look at the economy of the country. It may be to late to keep the politicians and other greedy people from destroying the country.

Widespread fraud is being reported in the use of "30-Day Laser Visas" which allow Mexican nationals to use a "credit card-style" card to enter within restricted areas of California and Texas for 30 days without other supporting documentation. These Visas, which were instituted to curb illegal immigration, contain both the photo and the fingerprint of its authorized holder. Yet it has been reported that these visas are being both sold and "rented" for use by others to cross the border, and that officials within the Mexican government are facilitating in diverting the issuance of these visas. USCIS reported that the Mexican government refuses to cooperate with ours in investigating allegations of suspected fraud, and that they fear the "30-Day Laser Visas" are being duplicated by Mexican organized crime.