Passport to return to the U.S. from Mexico?
 

Will requiring a passport change your plans on visiting Mexico in the near future? I know there are thousands U.S. Citizens on a daily basis who visit the border cities for a day of shopping and come back to the U.S. on the same day without having to carry a passport. Witll this make you not visit Mexico anymore? Since you will be required to have a passport, will you visit another country instead?

I believe the effective date on that is 1/1/2008...

It's a bit of a hassle to get a passport but once you do, they are good for 10 years.

Having a passport will probably speed things up coming back. No need to fumble with drivers licenses or birth certificates, etc.

I've already heard of local officials in Arizona and Texas wanting to setup additional offices to process passport applications. They are also discussing having some type of "day pass" system specifically for the shoppers. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

I've had my passport for years and years. And love going to Mexico on vacation. So no this won't make a bit of difference to my plans. Actually I think it's a great idea. After all Mexico and the U.S. are different countries.

The same thing will hold true when going to Canada. Being Canadian I always liked the fact that we could travel between our 2 countries without a passport, I thought it was a nice gesture by both countries. It makes me sad to know that that "innocence" is permanantly gone now. I am not naive and had expected this to happen for a long time, it just saddens me to see how much our world has changed.

Is this a troll? How dumb, frankly, to suggest that if I need a passport to visit Mexico, I might go to another country "instead"! Yeah, sure, I'll take my passport and drive to France for a day of shopping--take that, Mexico!

Actually, E, it's not stupid at all. Of course you won't drive to France for shopping, unless maybe you live in Germany or Spain. ;)

But, Mr. & Mrs. Smith who currently enjoy taking short tripst to Mexico (or Canada) because it's easy and convenient, and who do not have passports, hit the year 2008. Suddenly they need to get passports to go to Mexico (or Canada), so they do. But now they have passports. Before now, it would have been a pain to plan a trip to France because they didn't have a passport and had to get one. Now, they have to get one anyway, so why not go to France? A week spent in France may eat into the time they used to spend in Mexico (or Canada) now that they have the necessary tools to get there.

Certainly, anyone dreaming of visiting Europe won't let the thought of having to get a passport stop them. But there are plenty of others who might do it if they already had a passport and simply wouldn't bother to get one for that purpose.

And no, it will change nothing for me. I live near Canada but visit there infrequently, and I already have a passport.

I don't buy it. The Smiths are accustomed to driving to Mexico; substituting a trans-atlantic trip for their usual jaunt to Mexico in their car isn't plausible. As if the lack of a passport were the thing that was stopping them!

You don't have to buy it. The question was whether or not it would affect you in this way. Clearly, in your case, it wouldn't.

I can;t imagine any situation in which the mere posession of a passport would make people decide to vacation in europe rather than Mexico or Canada. It simply makes no sense.

Clearly location is an issue that people aren't taking into consideration. I can drive to Canada in about 5 hours, so obviously I've been to Canada quite a few times and whether or not I need a passport or not to go there is immaterial to me (I've held a passport for many years) as it is close enough where going there isn't that big of a deal to me and I certainly wouldn't ever have the thought "oh, now that I need a passport at the end of my five hour drive perhaps I'll book a flight to Spain instead". Now I've never been to Mexico, and Mexico in my mind is almost as far away as Europe (where I have been on several occaisions) and with the new passport regulation I could see where those who live far away from Mexico might begin to have a mental image of the place as 'further off' than before. However, for those on the southern border I can see where that seems like an absurd question just as it would be for my friend who lives in Detroit and, in better economic days, talked of going to 'up north a bit' to shop, etc.

For someone who lives in Texas, the ease of getting across the border is worrisome in these post 9-11 years so I'm all for doing whatever is necessary to make us safer.

On the other hand, as a school teacher, I can tell you it is incredibly easy for someone to get across the border without having to go through a checkpoint. Our schools are flooded with students who are in this country illegally.

When they come to enter our school we can't even ask if they have papers. We have to take them. But that's another topic, altogether.

I'm not crawling out from under my bed until the whole terrorist/homeland security/passport security thing passes.

It is a phase you know. Soon, it will all go away.

The CNN article I read said that they are also looking at some type of border pass, but in either case, it's something you have to go out of your way to get. I have kept a valid passport since age 16 and probably always will. So no, this won't change my travel habits at all.

BTW, if anyone is now holding a passport that expires around January 1, 2008, keep in mind that the passport office will be very busy around that time, as surely there will be a big surge in passport applications. So if you must renew then, make sure to send it in early.