Hello...
My 80 year old mother is determined to fly from here (U.S.) as she has many times before
with just her drivers license and voters reg. card and what ever else. No passport, no B.C.
Will she have major trouble now since 9/11, and will she have a problem at the airport here before she even gets on a plane? Or is it the return?
She doesnt have time to get a passport even if she wanted to. Advice?

Call the airline and ask.

In the meantime, she will need a certified copy of her birth certificate and a photo id if she doesn't have a valid passport to return to the US without a major hassle.

Last summer, my Mom had no trouble getting into Canada, but it took some begging, pleading, and crying in desperation to get home to the US without the required ID.

One can get an expedited passport by paying extra - but for that you need a certified birth certificate and that would serve her purpose. While some older people do not have birth certificates, she probably had to supply something 15 years ago if she is on social security - so look around.

The issue of when she will be hassled - entry or exit to US. Strictly speaking she needs documents to get back into US - but most airlines check them at departure so a person does not get stranded out of the country.

Good luck.

Patty~

A voters reg. does not prove citizenship so if she's determined to use that and her drivers license, tell her to be prepared to not be able to board the flight and not be able to use her ticket again. Citizenship is her responsibility. If she doesn't have a passport, she must use her drivers license with a state issued B.C. with raised seal.

While a copy of a BC "should" be taken along, I have no doubt that an 80 year-old lady will have little/no trouble passing back and forth. Even the most hard core inspectors have grandmothers and will overlook such minimal paperwork problems. I say this given the lady's propensity to be hard nosed (ha!) and thus adamant about only taking her DL and VRC.

Thanx everyone for your advice. While it would be nice to use a BC, she doesnt have one now. I was just wondering if anyone else has had an experience where they hassled you at the airport ON YOUR WAY to Canada, and then of course getting back here.
She will be using a wheelchair to get to the gate etc and she has a little dog that travels in a carry-on bag with her. She has done this many times, just wondering since 9/11 if things have gotten so tight she wont be going! There are so many inconsistencies in traveling across borders, with it being very easy to drive across, where they dont even check your ID, to flying, where it much more stringent.

Last November we drove to Montral from NY. I forgot our passports.
We had to go into the Customs building and be interviewed by Customs officers. It was nervewracking, they could have refused us and made us go home and get the passports.
They told us then that one must have a Passport or Birth Certificate PLUS a second form of ID with a photograph.
We only had drivers licenses with photos. The thing that got us in was our record on their computers that we go to Montreal often and whatever else they have in those computers!
They say that a drivers license is not proof of citezenship and that is what you need. Good luck~

Please forgive my spelling ~ it is still early

Hi Patty. Somehow your mother has got to understand that the INS has changed the way it functions for US citizens returning from Canada. There is a terrorist sneaking in every second, particularly those disguised as old ladies.

I had my passport last summer and still I got questioned at a highway border crossing into the USA.
Getting into Canada was no problem; I showed no documents at all.

When crossing the border INTO the USA there was such dumb silliness as to keep boat passengers on Lake Waterton from leaving the boat dock at the American end of the lake. I had my passport, but no way could I walk down a trail outside of the yellow taped in area. I would have been arrested. Talk about being a prisoner in your own country!! Strange feeling.

The National Park people had been told to stop everybody getting off of the boat. A terrorist might ride the boat to the end of the lake, get off with a bomb, hike the 20 miles to a road lugging the bomb, meet some accomplices, and go blow up a major airport or something. By stopping us all at the little visitor center, the US was protected from terrorist threats. To show what a good job they were doing, no one had blown up Glacier National Park.

By contrast, hikers leaving the US could get on the boat and ride to Canada.

What I found so ridiculous, was that there was no nose count of passengers, so someone could have gotten off of the boat, hidden in the bushes and slipped past the two or three rangers with no trouble. Miles of woods to hide in.
Don't you feel safer knowning our border with Canada is so well guarded??

Bob Brown just about has it right! No one wants to be the inspector who allows someone to pass through into the US and the person blows something up. Interpret this anyway you want, but my view is that common sense has to have a place in national security. Bob's episode is apt in this regard. You also see the lack of common sense when elderly people are pulled out of line at the boarding gate and forced to remove their shoes and belts, but young swarthy looking guys standing right behind them are waived through (I suppose I kinda fit into the latter category). All for "political correctness!

Patty, no one can say for sure whether your Mom will encounter some blockhead of a US immigration inspector. But if she was my Mom I'd allow her to go as planned and take whatever ID docs she has. Heck, if she is held up by some idiot inspector, advise her to tell him/her that the dog is in dire need of peeing and unless she's allowed to proceed she's gonna take him out of the bag and put him down on the floor to do his thing! But I'd like to think that there are many more inspectors who exercise proper discretion than otherwise. Let us know how things went after she returns.

Our passports recently expired, and we got conflicting information about what documentation was required to cross the border on our upcoming visit to Canada. It has become a more subjective process, which varies according to how and where you enter (i.e. air vs. ferry, Vancouver vs. Toronto).

In the end, we decided to get expedited passports to save ourselves the potential hassle -- it took 1 day at the SF passport office. The appointment took about 10 minutes, and the passport was waiting for us the next day after 1pm.

Even before 9/11 there were two sets of rules for US citizens re-entering home from Canada. At highway crossings, I never had to show a document -- until after 9/11.
At airports, it was a different story in in 1995.
A friend of mine, who is half Navajo, went to a medical conference in Vancouver, never thinking of the difficulties that lay ahead. The fun began when she tried to board her flight at the Vancouver airport. She unfortunately had little with her to prove citizenship. I am sure that because of her appearance, she got "special treatment." The fact that she was an MD had nothing to do with it. The INS called her employer to get verification before she could board the flight.

Last year, when I flew home from Calgary, the US immigration official at the gate did not ask me for a birth certificate, he asked me for my passport. Fortunately I had it, and the questioning period was relatively brief.

But I kid you not, the quizzing I have gotten re-entering the US from Canada has far exceeded anything I have ever gotten coming back to the US from Europe, even on 9/20. Go figure.

I really do not understand two things:
1. what good does a thorough check at a highway crossing from Canada to the US do when there are thousands of little dirt roads that can be traversed in a good SUV. 2. What am I supposed to do with all the colored alerts? I am told to be more careful and more alert, but what the (*(*( do I do?
See a terrorist behind every trash can?
One friend of mine suggested we check shoes in the restroom stalls and, if we see terrorist type shoes, we should call the police. Anybody got a picture of terrorist shoes they could post so we can get an idea of what to look for?

Now you have me worried about the "little dog that travels in her carry on bag" with her. I am assuming she is aware of what papers, immunizations, etc. the "little dog" requires - and that regulations for the dog may have also changed.

I suspect she will view all of this unneccessary and a big pain - and a lot of it is. 9/11 served as an opportunity for everyone to look at security measures for everything - sometimes for the better and sometimes veering towards silliness. But things really have changed, and even seemingly unrelated aspects - like the dog - may not be as easy as they were before.

My 11 year old daughter traveling Boston to Florida with my mother was subject to a ridiculous pat-down check at the airport. Sometimes I can't decide if I am madder at the acts of terrorists or the way we have all been forced to act because of them - but it is the reality of today, and I hope things go as smoothly for your mother as she hopes - all you can do is warn her and then she can make her own decisions.

Somehow I have become fascinated with the plight of your mother - maybe it is because I can't leave my job at work - as I am a nurse working with elderly and disabled people.

I found an interesting website - gocanada.about.com. Specifically, it has info on documents needed to enter Canada and re-enter US. It specifically says voter registration card IS NOT proof of citizenship. I would reconfirm with airline what will happen to her without proof of citizenship.

As far as the dog, I checked several airline webistes and also info on above mentioned site. I was surprised that small dogs are OK for carry-on as long as they are secured in-flight and can fit in waterproof carrier under seat. There is a fee and limit per flight. Also, as far as paperwork, only rabies certificate is required. All had caveat that airline had right to reserve entry to any dog for any reason, especially aggressive.

A driver's license only proves that you can drive, nothing else.... She should have at least a birth certificate...... why risk all the problems it might entail.

Suggest you access Canada Embassy Washington DC via yahoo or google, and you'll see the border information on visitng Canada. Passport appears to be the optimum.

Getting into Canada is not the problem.
At highway crossings, even last year when I made 3 of them between Glacier US and Waterton, I showed no documents.
The Canadian officials questioned me, but that was all.

The only guy I ever saw really get the treatment was pre 9/11. Some guy in a psychedelic VW van wised off to the customs officials at the Chief Mountain crossing. I could hear part of his conversation and my reaction was "You idiot. These guys have got the power to do what they wish if they decide that you don't get in."

Before I got my turn, "Psycho Dell", as we dubbed him, was ordered to pull his the van off to the side and about 4 officials started the inspection. After a short wait, I was questioned and allowed to continue. As I drove off after a few questions about tobacco, liquor and firearms, the inspectors were making good progress. The insides of the van were rapidly becoming the outsides as luggage and other stuff was being piled up on the pavement. One inspector even pulled the spare tire and was preparing to look inside. (I wonder how they got the tire back on the rim? Bet they didn't.)Another one was under the car and a 3rd one was poking around the motor after he had pulled the hubcaps, opened ice chests, coolers, suitcases, and various sacks.

Every time Psycho Dell opened his mouth, one of the inspectors opened another bag. He never did understand that if he shut up it would soon be over. From what I saw, it was a thorough shakedown to say the least.

At the Calgary airport, getting into Canada was routine. I did show my passport, but it was a cursory check.

The problem is getting back to the US.
If you don't have a passport, you better have a birth certificate, with the raised seal of official issue, and a government issued picture ID. That is where the driver's license comes in to play. It is the government picture ID required to support the birth certificate.
I was told that my University of Georgia picture ID was not sufficient. (My retort was that it was harder to get than a driver's license. Just about anybody, drunk or sober, literate or illiterate, can get a license to drive. Pardon my smile, but if a driver's license proves you can drive, then my Uncle Pete must have known how. We did not think so, but he had a license. My dad said it was a license to kill, not drive. Pete did ok as long as he kept his truck out of the ditch, but that was not easy for him to do.)

Chief Mtn, it is famous for that sort of thing, Bob.

I well remember trying to cross on a motorcycle with a party of about 10 motorcyclists.

One guy was asked if he had a record. He said no, a lie, and we left him behind as they were systematically dismantelling his bike.

He had to hire a truck to bring the pieces home the next day.

I have to say, I don't know what nationality has to do with your intentions, evil or otherwise.

I think that it has gotten a little out of control. I was born in the States, am a US citizen as well as a Cdn. citizen and I get hassled everytime I cross into the States, simply because I chose to carry a Cdn. passport rather than a US one. I live in Canada for heavens sake and have for nearly 40 years. I have no record, I am a productive citizen.

I guess that you just have to play the game.

It pays to always be forthright, honest and answer every question they ask you, no matter what. But don't volunteer anything, just answer their questions, succinctly and quickly.

Other than the question about my "citizenship?" am I Canadian or am I American, if I am honest and I always am, I haven't had too much difficulty other than the frustration of dealing with a border guard who may feel that I am an ex-pat and resent that.

My brother was refused entrance at Chief Mtn. (again) though even though they know him well, because he didn't have a passport.

Flying is definitely much more stringent these days. Though passports are not required for re-entering the USA from Canada, Mexico, and a few other destinations, Proof of Citizenship is absolutely required. If you peruse this and other web travel forums, folks have reported that you must have the proper re-entry documentation in order to be checked in and board the outgoing flight.

I'd read/heard in years past that a Voters Registration Card was sufficient for returning from Canada, but can find no reference to that anywhere now.

In this high-tech world, you can phone the bureau of records (or whatever) where your Mom was born and have an official, certified, raised seal, birth certificate sent to you overnight with a credit card.

We've never flown to Canada and back, but drive there and back frequently. We happen to have passports, which we usually bring along. With the passports, we breeze right through. The one time we didn't have them along, we were questioned seemingly endlessly, but thankfully not directed to the "inspection" building (though our car and trunk were thoroughy inspected which had never happened before). I had a tattered raised seal birth certificate (nearly in pieces) along. Apparently, if one person "vouches" that the other is a US citizen, they accept that. Though, it was suggested that we might be required to go to the "inspection" building so that I could complete and have notarized an "affidavit of citizenship" for my husband. By some miracle, when I went searching for a pen in the glove compartment, what do you know, there were our passports from our last trip we'd forgotten to return to the desk drawer.

Since then, we make sure to have our passports with us.

I fly with dogs back and forth to the U.S. frequently. Your mother's dog will need a rabies certificate AND an international health certificate dated not more than 10 days prior to travel.