Do you need a passport?
 

Just heard a blurb on the local radio news that people camped out overnight, and the line is now winding around the block at the SF passport office due to the new passport regulations in effect, I believe, tomorrow. If you're leaving the country any time soon it may behoove you to make sure yours is in order!

We just got ours a year ago. Have there been changes that would affect us?

The change affects travel to Canada, the Caribbean, and other neighboring countries like Mexico.

Passport changes imminent:

http://tinyurl.com/38kok5

The new rules don't affect anyone who already has a passport. You just need a passport to get back into the US after flying to Canada, Mexico, or the Carribean. For the time being, driving between the US and Canada or Mexico is still the same, but eventually you will need a passport for that too.

Thanks, guys. I knew these particular changes were coming. But when I saw this post I panicked momentarily as DD and I will both be leaving the country in the next couple of months. Since we got passports last year, I thought that was one thing we didn't have to worry about. I'm relieved to see I was right!

This is of course the stupidest damn thing in the world, exceeded only by the stupidity of the government's other bogus "security" operations. It's tantamount to a declaration of war on Canada. Border crossings are already a nightmare; how long is it going to take NOW?

You don't need a passport to travel from the United States to Puerto Rico.

Under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI):
“The passport requirement does NOT apply to U.S. citizens traveling to or returning directly from a U.S. territory. U.S. citizens returning directly from a U.S. territory are not considered to have left the United States and do not need to present a passport. U.S. territories include the following: Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Swains Island, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.”

For those who would like to know more about Swains Island, see
www.janeresture.com/tokelau_islands/swains.htm

((I))