Mexico and Canada made a formal request tha "pass cards" be made available for land crosssings. Members of the Caribbean community yet have not formally asked but have inquired if th U.S. could extend a pass card to the them also.
This wasn't asked for by Canada or Mexico, it was "mutually agreed upon" meaning someone thought it was a good idea.
It is a good idea more or less, but if you plan to cruise anywhere other than in North America, you may as well get the Passport, and renew as necessary.
On top of that, there's nothing stating the costs of such a thing. There's currently a F.A.S.T. (I love these insipid acronyms... :D ) card for cross-border Trade, and it requires fingerprints, and it's about $25 for the registration. If you're not going to go with a full-on machine-readable passport program, and reduce the price of it, at least having a card that's supported by a biometrics and a central database, it's a better system than just having a simple and counterfeitable card.
This type of system was talked about in Canada in 1999-2000, and when 2001/09/11 happened, the question of integration with the US/Mexico.
BTW, as of Jan 23, 2007 You need a passport to travel by air to the US.
Passport Clarification Needed..
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This wasn't asked for by Canada or Mexico, it was "mutually agreed upon" meaning someone thought it was a good idea.
It is a good idea more or less, but if you plan to cruise anywhere other than in North America, you may as well get the Passport, and renew as necessary.
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=8177558e-91c3-4ad6-8e6e-db63816581bd&k=76330
On top of that, there's nothing stating the costs of such a thing. There's currently a F.A.S.T. (I love these insipid acronyms... :D ) card for cross-border Trade, and it requires fingerprints, and it's about $25 for the registration. If you're not going to go with a full-on machine-readable passport program, and reduce the price of it, at least having a card that's supported by a biometrics and a central database, it's a better system than just having a simple and counterfeitable card.
This type of system was talked about in Canada in 1999-2000, and when 2001/09/11 happened, the question of integration with the US/Mexico.
BTW, as of Jan 23, 2007 You need a passport to travel by air to the US.
http://www.ppt.gc.ca/newsroom/news.aspx?lang=e&page=/newsroom/20061205.aspx
If you're American, you don't NEED a passport, but, you're far better served to get one, that way you can cruise in Europe.
Either way, us non-Americans will be in a shorter line on boarding :D