Posted on 05/16/2009 3:38:46 PM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network
http://www.getyouhome.gov
The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.
As of June 1st (that's just 2 weeks away now!) a US drivers license is no longer accepted as documentation to re-enter the United States at a land border.
Accepted documents will be a passport, a passport card, or an "enhanced" drivers license fitting the requirements - a couple states have those available.
You just *know* there will be thousands and thousands of American tourists who don't know - and who show up at the border checkpoint in Vancouver, Windsor, San Ysidro with ... their drivers license.
So what in the world is going to happen to them?
Just have been wondering this - and figure it wouldn't hurt to remind FReepers the new requirements are here.
It's no longer "some time in the future".
The new requirements are here now.
I take your point: the hassle-free crossing between Canada and the US are a thing of the past, and requiring this added piece of documentation is going to cause havoc at places like Douglas/Blaine, at least for the first wee while.
(presumably they will phase it in?)
It has been a long time coming, but it is a manifestly more sensible scheme of arrangement during a time of war. Hassle-free crossing is an ill-afforded luxury during a time of war when the Enemy has shown, in the past, a willingness to use such conveniences to his advantage.
(I’m not thinking of 9/11 here, but rather the Y2K bomber who crossed at Port Angeles)
The new requirements are here now.
Didn't they say the same thing about Digital Broadcast Television?
Will this apply to those who must send their children across the border to go to school, go to the hospitals & doctors, pick up their welfare checks at their P.O. Box & spend their pesos at American stores?
I remember buying gasoline and groceries across the border at Blaine...
I wonder how that will affect the people on Point Roberts (connected only to Canada, but part of the U.S.), right next to Tsawwassen?
I went there one time just to see what it looked like... LOL... (and to say I had been there... :-) ... )
Not much to see IMO
They have border crossing cards we’ve been giving them for YEARS.
Nope, not much to see. I did wonder if those “U.S. Citizens” on Point Roberts were really Canadians in disguise, though... LOL...
The bags of hammers would have to have been buried under a rock not to have heard about this. It is been in the works for more than a year, and I must have seen several thousand TV ads telling people about it. I am sure they will have a “trial period” where you get one pass, that is, they’ll still let you in with your DL, but after that you will be superly screwed, because they will have a record of you not complying the first time. Last time I renewed my passport I got a passport card, too.
If you have the passport card, it’s probably a good idea to keep it in the little foil RFID shield sleeve which comes along with it.
The new passports (ePassport) I believe now have an encrypted RFID with biometric info - which shields itself when it’s closed. You can tell if yours is one of the ePassports I think, by whether it has the little rectangular logo on the front. Older passports without the RFID technology don’t have that logo.
The passport card also has an RFID chip - which doesn’t have as much info, but it won’t shield itself- so it can in theory be read remotely.
I believe however it will only potentially broadcast an identifying number. Still probably good to keep it in the sleeve State provides with it.
My question,exactly. I suppose we will be “Beneath the streets of Boston” forever, stuck on that fine line between Mexico and the USA. I hope they have “border” service
I got an e-passport. And I keep the card in the little shell they sent with it, since they said to do that, and I am a good citizen who follows orders. Wish all my credit cards came with those. My only gripe is that the picture on the passport card is washed out, it looks over exposed, yet it is the same picture on my passport since I got them at the same time.
Some of the better travel supply places have started offering RFID blocking passport holders.
Sign of the times, I suppose.
Wonder if aluminum foil works? :)
I’m wondering how they will handle this at the Northwest Angle in Minnesota.
Point Roberts is in a major metro area, Alaska, is a large state, both of those areas have ways, in a pinch to bypass the border.
The Northwest Angle is very remote and the border checkpoint is a telephone. How do you check cards over a phone?
One other place I just thought of is Derby Line, Vermont. Due to a surveying error the US-Canadian border cuts through a bar, a library, an opera house and several homes...
I am really all in favor of thousands upon thousands of pissed off Americans who want back into their country and are told they can’t come because they don’t have some federal paper.
The expression “THE HELL YOU SAY!” comes to mind.
What’s going to happen the first time an American citizen is arrested for illegal entry, having been observed crossing the border “illegally”?
“No, sir! I have my State driver’s license, which shows that I am a legal American citizen. You gonna try and deport me?”
“We saw you cross illegally!”
“Nope, wasn’t me. Must have been somebody who looks like me. I’m an American citizen. Y’all keep looking, now. This is the State of Arizona, and I have an Arizona driver’s license. I’m here, and if you touch me I’ll have *you* arrested for false arrest.”
etc. etc. etc. Americans can be pestiferous, if teased or annoyed.
Well, this Point Roberts is in Washington State, but connected to Canada, right next to Tsawwassen...
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