Good news for you parents who travel internationally with your children. The Homeland Security Department just announced that U.S. and Canadian children will no longer need passports to come into the country by land or sea. If the news has you cheering, thank Canadian government officials and various tourism groups throughout North America—–both fought hard to ease the restrictions.
Just so there is no confusion, this new policy change does not affect children who fly. There will be no change to the new rules for those who travel by air. Everyone coming into the United States by plane, no matter the age, must show a passport under new passport rules that took effect January 23rd. (You can read my blog about those new restrictions by clicking here.)
This most recent announcement addresses new passport rules that could take affect as early as January 2008. Those rules state that all adults — including U.S. citizens — will be required to show passports to cross the nation’s borders. However, two days ago the federal government decided to exempt children from the policy.
The announcement came as welcome news to regional chamber of commerce groups both here in the United States and Canada. Their argument to reverse the requirement came down to dollars and cents. As one tourism official put it: “It was too outrageous to force families to buy passports for their children, at a cost of $82 each.”
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff agreed that price was a major factor in the decision to lift the requirement. Chertoff told reporters the change was “specifically designed to make it cheaper for families” to travel across the border.
So how does the latest rule change break down? Basically, the decision means that U.S. or Canadian citizens ages 15 and younger that obtain parental consent will be able to enter the United States with just a birth certificate. According to Homeland Security, the new rules also state that children 16 to 18 also will be allowed to cross the nation’s borders with a birth certificates if they are part of an adult-supervised school, religious, cultural or athletic group.
Administrators say they took in account the low security risk of travel by children prior to making their decision. And, I’m sure the pressure from critics helped sway them as well. According to news reports, Homeland Security offices were flooded with nasty letters from travel groups that maintained the passport rules would “discourage cross-border travel and tourism and would damage the economy in border communities.”
The Homeland Security and State departments also revealed that they are currently working to develop a high-tech border-crossing card—called a Passport Card— that would be less expensive and easier to obtain than a passport.
In the meantime, if you have kids that you shuttle over the border on a regular basis—-rejoice-—you just saved yourself at least 82 bucks.
Related Articles:
Holiday Travel: Important Passport Information For Parents and Children
Passports For Children–What You Need To Know