SinghPro

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061122/...rts_air_travel

U.S. to implement passport requirement

By BEVERLEY LUMPKIN, Associated Press WriterWed Nov 22, 6:45 AM ET

The Homeland Security Department will require virtually all air travelers entering the United States after Jan. 23 to show passports — even U.S. citizens.

Until now, U.S. citizens, travelers from Canada and Bermuda, and some travelers from Mexico who have special border-crossing cards for frequent visitors were allowed to show other proofs of identification, such as drivers' licenses or birth certificates.

iaink

Its about bloody time. I dont understand the resistance to this.

Of course, getting a passport apparently is not so hard

Rete

Couldn't agree more. Canada is a foreign country to Americans and the US is a foreign country to Canadians. A passport should be a requirement for both sides of the border (both north and south) and for travel to the Caribbean Islands.

Ain't so bloody difficult to get a passport and use it and if you can't afford it, then you can't afford to travel either.

Manc

I think Windsor will be hit economically by this which is a shame as it's a buzzing night out I think.

shame, but theres ya go

zmartin

That's okay - one more reason not to visit the US as far as I'm concerned!

celine_uk

i dont see why people are funny about this, its makes sense..... werent they suppose to bringing out some sort of smart card to cross the border to? ( if you live in canada or US)

iaink

If people cant be bothered to get a passport, good for travel anywhere inthe world, I doubt if they would be bothered enough to get a 49th parallel specific smartcard.

Even when they introduced the PR card for permanent residents, they didnt make it a requirement for people driving over the border and back

Andrew Miller

Americans are bringing the biometric border pass card as of next year. Canada is dragging it's feet, despite that we already have the technology in place (used for PR Cards) which with just some adjustment can be immediately implemented and approved by Americans.

JAJ

All that said, many neighbouring countries do allow ID cards or equivalent to be used in lieu of a passport, especially on land frontiers.

I had thought there would still be an alternative to the passport, eg NEXUS or CANPASS. But the mix of driving licence and birth/naturalisation certificate is unsustainable - too many permutations to allow easy exposure of fakes.

That said, Andrew has pointed out that the technology exists in Canada for a secure citizenship card and if the Canadian bureaucracy can't handle this then it's really not America's problem.

kt0157

Although the Americans are demanding the use of biometric passports (although the word "biometric" means "photograph of your face" in this case) the actual regulations are ICAO ones and it's about time modern countries adopted the new ICAO standards (which are much more secure because the photograph stored on the passport cannot be tampered with - until the issuing authority incompetently leaves its secure digital key on a laptop which is then stolen).

K.

MarkG

Could be a nice little earner too: 'Ooops, we lost our key again, everyone will have to get a new passport at fifty quid a time'.