Open Letter to Travel Arrangers from A Briggs Passport & Visa Expeditors
There has been a lot of talk regarding the WHTI (Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative) since last year’s delayed implementation. It appears that the requirement for US citizens (as well as non-US citizens) to provide a valid passport for entry into the US by means other than land will go into effect January 8, 2007. As you will see in the press release below, Congress has passed a bill that we expect the President to sign into law that will postpone the requirement for persons entering or re-entering the U.S. by land to have a passport. This is especially significant in that it did not postpone the requirement for those entering by air or sea. When reading the article below, keep in mind that it references ID cards. These cards are similar to Permanent Resident Cards (aka green cards), but for US citizens.
Also note in the last paragraph that the delay mentioned does not affect the passport requirement rule.
Last year there was a proposed implementation of January 1, 2006 and we recommended to our clients that this rule would not go into effect at that time and that, unless needed, there was no reason to update their passport status. We were correct in our recommendation.
This year, we believe that the rule for those entering or re-entering by air or sea will likely go into effect and that travelers should begin preparing for this date well in advance. Do to the hype last year, the later part of November and all of December the passport office was overloaded with applications, which caused issuance delays. We are recommending that travelers planning to travel near the end of this year or in the first quarter of 2007 apply for their passports now. Because most countries require that the passport be valid for six months prior to the date of entrance, travelers planning on departing the US by means other than land with passport expiration dates prior to August 2007 should take the opportunity now to renew their passports to avoid unnecessary expense and potential delays at a later date.
We cannot be sure that this new law will be implemented, but it now appears with the passage of the bill reported below that there is a good chance it will. There is still a possibility of a delay as lobbyists for the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada are arguing that this requirement will severely hurt vacation travel; so there is no way to know for sure, but the article below does indicate that "they" are getting closer to a decision. Assuming the bill is signed into law and broadcast to the public, it is our belief that there will be a tremendous load placed on the passport office in the near future, which will likely cause significant delays in passport issuance.
One significant aspect of the lobbying effort is that the airlines are not objecting to the proposed requirement that all air travelers have passports beginning January 8, 2007. The cruise industry, on the other hand, is trying to have that implementation date delayed. If the airlines are not opposing the implementation, then it is almost certain that, at a minimum, the law will be implemented on January 8th for all persons traveling by air. We originally thought the cruise industry had enough political muscle to postpone the implementation, but now it looks like the January 8th implementation date is going into effect for both air and sea departures and returns.
At A Briggs, it is our job to look out for you and your travelers regarding international travel and we monitor regulation and requirements changes on a daily basis. There has been much debate over this bill in the past few months and we have been waiting for the right information to make a recommendation to our clients. We feel that time is now.
I have included information packets for New Passports, Passport Renewals, and Adding Visa Pages. Please feel free to circulate these PDFs to those you think may need to see them.
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- A plan to tighten U.S. borders by requiring passports or tamper-resistant identification cards from everyone entering the country by land from Mexico and Canada has been delayed.
House and Senate lawmakers agreed to push back the program by 17 months, saying they want to make sure new ID cards being developed by the Bush administration will better secure borders against terrorists without slowing legitimate travelers from Canada and Mexico. The new ID's will be required for Americans and all others entering the U.S.
The delay would only apply to travelers entering the U.S. over land borders from Canada and Mexico. It would not affect travel rules for people coming into the country by airplane or cruise ship, who will have to show their passports to Customs officials as of January 8, 2007, to gain entry.
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