The U.S. government has finalized the date for the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.
Beginning January 23, 2007, all persons (including U.S. citizens and U.S. minor children and infants) traveling by air between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean (except Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), and Bermuda will need a valid passport, Air NEXUS card, or U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Document to enter the United States.
The W.H.T.I. will not affect travel between the United States and its territories (Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa). U.S. citizens traveling directly between the mainland and any of these destinations can continue to use an established form of identification to board flights and for entry.
Under the new program, if passengers visit another country during their trip, they will need a passport to get back into the United States. For example, passengers may travel between Charlotte and St. Croix (in the U.S. Virgin Islands) on a non-stop flight without carrying a passport. If on the same trip, however, the passengers also visit Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, they will need a passport to re-enter the U.S. Virgin Islands or the U.S. mainland.
Passengers currently traveling on birth certificates or driver's licenses to international destinations should be advised that these forms of identification will be unacceptable as travel documents after January 22, 2007.
To obtain information on the passport application process, U.S. citizens can consult the State Department's travel website (www.travel.state.gov) or call the U.S. National Passport Information Center: 1-877-4USA-PPT; TDD/TTY: 1-888-874-7793.