You might have missed it — I almost did — but at last week’s National Football League opening game between the Giants and Redskins, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) launched a $12 million public service campaign designed to both alert Americans to the new requirements for crossing the border for foreign travel, and explain the document options Americans have.
The changes were necessitated by the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) which allows travelers to use alternative identification to passports and eliminates the old driver’s license and birth certificate standard for travel to many nearby countries.
The ads at the game were well done, but necessarily limited in scope, since the spots were so short. That’s the nature of television advertisements, but as an alert for travelers, that they need to learn more about what document will be necessary to drive to Canada or Mexico, fly out of the country, or take a cruise, I thought the advertisement did its job well.
The new requirements go into effect on June 1, 2009, so there is little time for travelers to obtain proper documentation. Already, anyone flying out of the US needs a passport.
As part of the new campaign, CBP has launched a new information site, getyouhome, which lays out the new WHTI documentation options in a slick, new, animated page. The information on the site is clear and comprehensive. A big problem with the site is that for “dial-up” Internet users, the site takes too long to load. There are still many “dial-up” Internet users in the US who need to understand the new requirements.
While the getyouhome website is well executed, links on the site take you to the CBP site itself, and the US State Department’s site, rather than directly providing comprehensive information. Both those sites are difficult to navigate, and information to help decide which piece of documentation is best for each traveler is hard to locate there. The link from both the Passport and Passport Card sections of getyouhome go to the general State Department travel page, not the specific pages for Passports or Passport Cards.
One noteworthy area of the getyouhome site is the Trusted Traveler Program section. For the first time, CBP has put in one place a cogent and succinct explanation of the NEXUS, SENTRI, and FAST card programs.
Even with all the above available information on the CBP and State Department sites, they have done nothing to comprehensively lay out a traveler’s options so one can figure out which of these documentation products is best for each traveler. In my column, Passport or passport card — which is best for foreign travel?, here at Tripso, I did just that. Since the article, I’ve added some thoughts which I’ve shared with members in Tripso’s forums at TalkingTravelers.com.
- If your foreign travel will take you to any non-WHTI country, or if you’ll be flying, there’s no choice, you must have a passport.
- If your foreign travel will be only by sea, and only to WHTI countries, while a passport card is sufficient, I recommend you get a passport, in case of an emergency. The emergency may never come, but if it does, you’ll be very happy you have a passport so you’re not denied flying on to the next port, or when reentering the US, you are not detained for inspection and questioning — or worse — by Customs and Immigration.
- If your foreign travel will consist solely of overland travel to either Canada or Mexico, with no thought of traveling elsewhere, then go for the passport card or enhanced driver’s license, if available in your state, and if you’re making the trip to Canada or Mexico frequently, consider a NEXUS or SENTRI card which will enable you to use the dedicated commuter lanes at the respective borders. (FAST cards are only available for commercial truck drivers.)
After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. Before entering the corporate world, Ned worked as a Public Health Engineer for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. As a well known corporate, travel and wildlife photographer, Ned travels the world writing about travel and photography, as well as running photography workshops, seminars and photowalks. Visit Ned’s Photography Blog and Galleries.
