License to Travel

This article has been cross posted on my Personal Blog.

Image via Wikipedia

Have you ever heard of a Passport Card? I hadn’t either until recently when I went online to renew my Passport Book and I saw something about a Passport Card (www.travel.state.gov). It was about $50 cheaper, so I started doing some research. Here’s what I found out that I think will be helpful to you:

• A Passport Card is small and fits in your wallet (it looks similar to a driver’s license).
• It serves as an identification card and proof of citizenship.
• You can use a Passport Card in place of a birth certificate (that’s convenient!).
• You can re-enter the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda with the Passport Card, but not via air travel (land border crossings and sea ports-of entry only)
• The Passport Card is valid for the same number of years as a Passport Book (10 years for an adult; 5 years for minors under 16).

I’ve ordered mine and expect to have it within 4-6 weeks.

Image via Wikipedia

Here’s how to apply for a Passport Card:

You must apply for a Passport Card in person, but that’s easy with more than 9,400 locations nationwide. Click here to search for a location near you. Just bring your filled-out application that you can download at http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/passcard.html . You need to go in person so you can have your passport photo taken.

That brings up another thing. The passport photo included on this card will help you out whenever you encounter a situation where “two forms of photo ID are required.” Your Passport Card will be in your wallet next to your driver’s license. How convenient.

More than a million of these things have been ordered since the State Department began issuing them about this time last year.

Remember, new passport requirements went into effect June 1, 2009.

You can no longer re-enter the U.S. via land or sea from Mexico or Canada with a driver’s license or birth certificate. The Passport Card will make these crossings more convenient for cruise line passengers and business travelers – especially those based in border cities. Oh, and adults traveling with groups of children for sporting events, civic projects or other reasons. These new passport requirements were put in place to increase border security while making it more convenient for U.S. citizens to re-enter the United States. And thus the Passport Card was born.

Here’s another passport requirement that went into effect in June: All U.S. citizens (including children ages birth through 18) are required to have a Passport Book when entering the United States at airports. Parents: your babies now are required to have a passport when flying back to the U.S. from abroad (www.travel.state.gov)

Think about it, a card that fits into your wallet, can be used in place of your birth certificate, can be used as an identification card and proof of citizenship. The Passport Card will do the trick – unless you’re traveling by air. If you are, I recommend applying for a Passport Book. The Passport Card is a limited-use travel document that will be a huge convenience to many (but not all) travelers. Figure out what your travel patterns or future travel plans are when deciding whether to go with a Passport Card or a traditional Passport Book – or both. For those who are frequent travelers both via air and land, applying for both a Passport Card and a Passport Book might be the way to go.

In any case … safe, happy travels to you.

Carl Parrish is the Author of – Travel Treasures – Hidden Gems to empower the World Traveler in You, and loves photograpy and travel.