As of January 23, 2007 the new Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) requires all tourists to and from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda to provide a passport or different regularly occurring report that establishes the bearer’s identification and nationality in an effort to enter or re-enter the USA. The goal is to bolster border protection and facilitate entry into the USA for U.S. Citizens and valid international vacationers.
Under this law the following documents are be ideal to satisfy report necessities:
• U.S. Passport: U.S. Residents may additionally gift a legitimate U.S. Passport while visiting thru air between the USA and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda, and can additionally use a U.S. Passport when visiting via sea and land borders (including ferry crossings).
• The Passport Card (additionally called the PASS Card): This constrained-use passport in card layout is currently underneath development and will be to be had to be used for journey best through land or sea (together with ferries) between the U.S. And Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. Similar in size to a credit card, it’ll match without difficulty into a pockets.
• DOS and DHS also anticipate that the subsequent files will continue to be acceptable for his or her modern-day travel makes use of under WHTI: SENTRI, NEXUS, FAST, and the U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Document. Members of the U.S. Armed Forces on active obligation traveling on orders will stay exempt from the passport requirement
The passport requirement does NOT apply to U.S. Citizens touring to or returning directly from a U.S. Territory. U.S. Residents returning immediately from a U.S. Territory aren’t considered to have left the USA and do not need to provide a passport.
U.S. Citizens journeying from U.S. Territories need now not to present a passport to re-enter the USA. As lengthy because the territories are a part of the USA. U.S. Citizens returning without delay from a U.S. Territory are not taken into consideration to have left the U.S. Territory and do now not need to give a passport. U.S. Territories consist of the following: Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Swains Island and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Children also are required to offer passports underneath the guideline. Yes, kids could be required to provide a passport whilst entering the US at airports. More information on obtaining a passport for a minor may be determined at http://tour.Kingdom.Gov
Here’s what will show up to you if you try to re-enter the U.S. With out a passport or an opportunity tour card. Under the regulation, the new documentation requirements may be waived beneath certain instances. These exceptions encompass character cases of unforeseen emergency and character instances based totally on “humanitarian or countrywide hobby motives.” In addition, the State Department has strategies to help U.S. Residents foreign places to attain emergency journey documentation for people with misplaced or stolen passports. There became a time while if a U.S. Citizen lost or their pass port become stolen you could visit any U.S. Embassy and get a new one issued proper instant.