I had heard earlier that this was the year that all american citizens heading north needed a passport. Is this true or are the old ploicies still in affect ie: drivers license and birth certificate.

US Dept. of State passport info page says date is Jan 2008 for passport requirement. Just make sure all travelers in group have some form of proof of legal US status - that does not include a driver's license, since all that does is comfirm you identity. Usual proof is birth certificate.

Isn't the passport requirement for when Americans return to the US?

http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/...onal_1170.html - this site might help

According to one of the travel sites (I believe Travelocity), the passport requirement doesn't take affect until Dec. 31 of this year.

The requirements to enter Canada are not changing, it is the requirements to enter the US that is changing - so if you are American, the problem will be on your return trip. But, as others have noted, this has not yet come into effect.

I think Canada should make the same requirements, just to make things easier. Think of all the people happily entering Canada on vacation, and then not being able to get back home! What a nightmare.

I suggest strongly that if you are departing for the US by air that you have a passport. It makes life easier.

You will also be processed into Canada faster if you have a passport. At least, that has been my experience.

My son went with his wife and two boys with just birth certificates and photo IDs that were government issued, i.e. drivers' licenses and got in and out ok.

IF you rent a car and for some reason want to cross the border, have written permission to take the car across.

I have gotten the 3rd degree a couple of times driving from Calgary to Montana.
For some reason, the US border patrol officers are hard to live with on that issue.

You better get a passport. It is YOUR country that will be demanding it.

The onus is on you to prove your citizenship to custom officer's satisfaction; I witnessed a woman trying to convince an officer with all kinds of cards and no birth certificate, it was not going well.

These days, you might as well have a passport, it's so much easier.

But the point is you dont NEED a passport- you need a certified birth certificate. I assure you- I have done this several times -

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December 31, 2006 – Passport required for all air and sea travel to or from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda.


The above is directly from the State Department website. In 2007 we will need a passport for land border crossings.

Right now a passport is not a legal, de jure, requirement, but is close to a defacto requirement.