Posted on 05/16/2009 3:38:46 PM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network
http://www.getyouhome.gov
The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.
As of June 1st (that's just 2 weeks away now!) a US drivers license is no longer accepted as documentation to re-enter the United States at a land border.
Accepted documents will be a passport, a passport card, or an "enhanced" drivers license fitting the requirements - a couple states have those available.
You just *know* there will be thousands and thousands of American tourists who don't know - and who show up at the border checkpoint in Vancouver, Windsor, San Ysidro with ... their drivers license.
So what in the world is going to happen to them?
Just have been wondering this - and figure it wouldn't hurt to remind FReepers the new requirements are here.
It's no longer "some time in the future".
The new requirements are here now.
I take your point: the hassle-free crossing between Canada and the US are a thing of the past, and requiring this added piece of documentation is going to cause havoc at places like Douglas/Blaine, at least for the first wee while.
(presumably they will phase it in?)
It has been a long time coming, but it is a manifestly more sensible scheme of arrangement during a time of war. Hassle-free crossing is an ill-afforded luxury during a time of war when the Enemy has shown, in the past, a willingness to use such conveniences to his advantage.
(I’m not thinking of 9/11 here, but rather the Y2K bomber who crossed at Port Angeles)
The new requirements are here now.
Didn't they say the same thing about Digital Broadcast Television?
Will this apply to those who must send their children across the border to go to school, go to the hospitals & doctors, pick up their welfare checks at their P.O. Box & spend their pesos at American stores?
I remember buying gasoline and groceries across the border at Blaine...
I wonder how that will affect the people on Point Roberts (connected only to Canada, but part of the U.S.), right next to Tsawwassen?
I went there one time just to see what it looked like... LOL... (and to say I had been there... :-) ... )
Not much to see IMO
They have border crossing cards we’ve been giving them for YEARS.
Nope, not much to see. I did wonder if those “U.S. Citizens” on Point Roberts were really Canadians in disguise, though... LOL...
The bags of hammers would have to have been buried under a rock not to have heard about this. It is been in the works for more than a year, and I must have seen several thousand TV ads telling people about it. I am sure they will have a “trial period” where you get one pass, that is, they’ll still let you in with your DL, but after that you will be superly screwed, because they will have a record of you not complying the first time. Last time I renewed my passport I got a passport card, too.
If you have the passport card, it’s probably a good idea to keep it in the little foil RFID shield sleeve which comes along with it.
The new passports (ePassport) I believe now have an encrypted RFID with biometric info - which shields itself when it’s closed. You can tell if yours is one of the ePassports I think, by whether it has the little rectangular logo on the front. Older passports without the RFID technology don’t have that logo.
The passport card also has an RFID chip - which doesn’t have as much info, but it won’t shield itself- so it can in theory be read remotely.
I believe however it will only potentially broadcast an identifying number. Still probably good to keep it in the sleeve State provides with it.
My question,exactly. I suppose we will be “Beneath the streets of Boston” forever, stuck on that fine line between Mexico and the USA. I hope they have “border” service
I got an e-passport. And I keep the card in the little shell they sent with it, since they said to do that, and I am a good citizen who follows orders. Wish all my credit cards came with those. My only gripe is that the picture on the passport card is washed out, it looks over exposed, yet it is the same picture on my passport since I got them at the same time.
Some of the better travel supply places have started offering RFID blocking passport holders.
Sign of the times, I suppose.
Wonder if aluminum foil works? :)
I’m wondering how they will handle this at the Northwest Angle in Minnesota.
Point Roberts is in a major metro area, Alaska, is a large state, both of those areas have ways, in a pinch to bypass the border.
The Northwest Angle is very remote and the border checkpoint is a telephone. How do you check cards over a phone?
One other place I just thought of is Derby Line, Vermont. Due to a surveying error the US-Canadian border cuts through a bar, a library, an opera house and several homes...
I am really all in favor of thousands upon thousands of pissed off Americans who want back into their country and are told they can’t come because they don’t have some federal paper.
The expression “THE HELL YOU SAY!” comes to mind.
What’s going to happen the first time an American citizen is arrested for illegal entry, having been observed crossing the border “illegally”?
“No, sir! I have my State driver’s license, which shows that I am a legal American citizen. You gonna try and deport me?”
“We saw you cross illegally!”
“Nope, wasn’t me. Must have been somebody who looks like me. I’m an American citizen. Y’all keep looking, now. This is the State of Arizona, and I have an Arizona driver’s license. I’m here, and if you touch me I’ll have *you* arrested for false arrest.”
etc. etc. etc. Americans can be pestiferous, if teased or annoyed.
Well, this Point Roberts is in Washington State, but connected to Canada, right next to Tsawwassen...
- or -
Just try being in Canada or any other country ‘’illegally’’, if you’re lucky they’ll show you to the nearest Amer. consulate or embassy. If not so lucky,,, nice knowing you.
Just say “No hable engles!
They’ll let ya in.
Good point, so to speak. Based on the blasé appearance of the commmunity, I wouldn’t doubt it.
10 seconds in a microwave on low also works.
You asked — Wonder if aluminum foil works? :)
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In Texas and Oklahoma, they have these boxes that charge the toll on the Toll Roads, automatically, as you drive at normal speeds on the highway, right through the toll “gates”.
They supply you with special cellophane-type bags (you can see through them, slightly) that will shield the signals and prevent these devices from working. This is for when people want to pay a toll manually, and not use the “Pike Pass” (in Oklahoma) and the “TollTag” (from NTTA; North Texas Tollway Authority).
So, you can use one of their bags, for that purpose, too.
This is straying over the border into bizarre. I am supposed to keep my passport and passport card in a cellophane bag and whip it out that way? That would get me a secondary inspection for sure. I will stick with my cute tin-foil hat and hope for the best. And why would anyone not want to use their automatic turnpike pass?
You said — This is straying over the border into bizarre. I am supposed to keep my passport and passport card in a cellophane bag and whip it out that way? That would get me a secondary inspection for sure.
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Well, I think what I’ve heard from others is a concern that these items could be read in other situations where you didn’t intend to have it read, or even in situations where someone who wasn’t supposed to have the information could be reading it. So, shielding it for all other circumstances would be prudent (in what those other people were saying).
But, in regards to the situations where you knew that the passport was going to be required, then you can get it out and have it ready beforehand. Then there’s not anything “obvious” that you’re doing.
But, really..., though, it shouldn’t be illegal to shield it, so it shouldn’t present a problem.
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And then you asked — And why would anyone not want to use their automatic turnpike pass?
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Well, one easy answer would be where you were transporting it (like taking it from the car back home again, let’s say if someone is borrowing the car).
Another concern that some have and I think it may be true in some situations, is that there may be some “readers” out there where there are no toll situations, and they want to see how many people are traveling certain directions and certain ways to and from toll roads. People may not want to be tracked.
Also, let’s say your car is being towed, on a trailer, and it has to go down a toll road (on the tow vehicle), in that case you wouldn’t want it charging a toll for the car, when the tow truck operator is going to be paying a toll for the truck.
I always keep the shielding bag in the glove box at all times. Actually, I have two — one for Texas and one for Oklahoma, and I take one off, put the other up, and then shield the one in the glove box.
Oh..., one more instance of why someone would want to shield the Pike Pass or TollTag (for Oklahoma and Texas). If you’re towing a trailer on a particular trip, you’ll have to pay a different toll amount and you’ll want to shield your toll device.
That one would be a pretty common one, I would think.
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