Traveling To Canada? A Passport Card Is A New Option

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:53:19 EST

One thing that many people are nowworried about is the documentation that they will need when travelingon a cruise or to places like Canada or Mexico. For years, we neverneeded a passport to Canada, but obvious happenings over the lastdecade have changed all of that. Today, anyone that is leaving thecountry needs some type of passport documentation.

Prior to 2009, entering and exiting the country to bordercountries was pretty easy. If the traveler had a driver’s license orbirth certificate, they could pretty much come and go as they pleased.Circumstances have changed and travelers now need passports fordestinations that never required it before.

The new laws that went into effect in June 2009 make it mandatoryfor any traveler, even those going to border countries or cruises willnow need passport documentation to get back into the country. Theevents of September 11th have changed the world forever. It may havetaken a while for the actual law to go into place, but make no mistakethat those terrorist events were the inspiration for travel laws likethis.

According to Homeland Security, this is all an attempt at shoringup our borders and making our country a more secure place to live. Manytimes, illegal immigrants and possible terrorists took advantage ofthese lax regulations and passed into our borders with barely aneyebrow being raised. Old documentation was not exactly difficult toforge and entry was quite easy for just about anyone.

Although citizens of the country should understand this, for somereason they are more worried about convenience than they are safety.For many, the process of getting a passport to travel to a country thatthey used to drive into several times a month is a major issue. Theythink that it is just plain silly to have to carry a passport to Canadaor Mexico.

The government continues to maintain that this measure isnecessary to beef up our country's security. However, they have alsoconceded that these new measures are quite different and know thatpeople do not respond to change very well. For that reason, there arenow different types of passport documentation that can be used to makethings a little more convenient.

One of the new forms of identification that can be used in placeof a regular passport is a passport card. They are much less expensiveto obtain than a standard passport and they are also a lot easier tocarry. Instead of carrying a big, bulky passport folder, they can havedocumentation that will fit into the same space that a driver’s licensewould normally occupy.

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Traveling To Canada? A Passport Card Is A New Option