More trips require passports
Passport agent Janet Maer is busy these days, fielding a growing number of applications from people planning cruises to Mexico and the Caribbean.
“It’s definitely become a big thing,” said Maer, who works in the North Brunswick, N.J., municipal clerk’s office. “A lot of these people are going on cruises, and their travel agents are advising them to get a passport now.”
The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative – which was passed by Congress as part of a broader anti-terrorism law in 2004 – will change the relaxed rules on Americans traveling to Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean, as well as South and Central America.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2007, travelers leaving by air or sea will have to carry a passport to those destinations, just as they do now when they go to Europe or Asia. In the past, a birth certificate or driver’s license was all a traveler needed to re-enter the country after visiting islands in the Caribbean, for example.
The same law also affects Americans who drive across international borders. Motorists entering Canada and Mexico will be required to present a passport, or smaller passport card, beginning in 2008.
While passport agents may be increasingly busy these days, the cruise industry isn’t convinced prospective travelers are aware of the looming deadline.
A recent survey of cruise passengers traveling to the Caribbean showed only 45 percent carried passports, according to the International Council of Cruise Lines.
“I would feel much better if it were 95 percent,” says Robert Sharak, executive vice president of the Cruise Lines International Association. “The issue is making sure the American population understands that if on Jan. 1, 2007, they come to the cruise terminal and don’t have a passport, they won’t get on that ship.”
Last year, the U.S. Department of State issued 10.1 million passports, an increase of 30 percent over 2004. This year, the number of applications is expected to reach 13 million, according to Angela Aggeler, a State Department spokeswoman.
The bigger issue, she says, is the 2008 deadline requiring passports for land travel to Canada and Mexico.
“The people who are most affected don’t think that they’re crossing an international border,” Aggeler says. “This is not like me getting on a plane to fly to London. For these people, a school may be on one side and home may be on another. It’s their neighborhood.”
Federal security officials and Congress are discussing the idea of a less expensive, credit card-sized passport card as an alternative to a passport for drivers who make frequent border crossings, particularly along the northern borders.
Those plans are fueling some concern over whether the federal rule-making process will be completed quickly enough to make either of the passport deadlines stick.
“Things are confusing,” says Rick Webster of the Travel Industry Association. “One possible outcome is people won’t travel. There could be tens of thousands of people who decide not to travel because they’re concerned about what documentation they’ll need.”
Others predict there could be an avalanche of passport applications later this year, possibly causing delays that could prevent some people from traveling.