Passport requirements UPDATED!
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Feds temporarily waive travel rules to ease passport crunch.
The Bush administration today temporarily waived some of its new, post-Sept. 11 requirements for flying abroad, hoping to help irate summer travelers whose trips have been jeopardized by delays in processing their passports.
The change would aid those fliers awaiting a U.S. passport to meet the new rule requiring one for travel to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda. But it won’t clear the way for travelers who haven’t already applied for a passport. There is still no passport required for Americans driving across the Canadian or Mexican borders or taking sea cruises, although those travelers are expected to need passports under new rules beginning next year.
Easing the rules should allow the State Department to catch up with a massive surge in applications that has overwhelmed passport processing centers since the rule took effect this year, officials said. The resulting backlog has caused up to three-month delays for passports and ruined or delayed the travel plans of thousands of travelers. Until the end of September, travelers will be allowed to fly without a passport if they present a State Department receipt, showing they had applied for a passport, and government-issued identification, such as a driver’s license.
Travelers showing only receipts would receive additional security scrutiny, which could include extra questioning or bag checks. DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said the easing of the passport rule would only affect those who have already applied for passports - not those who apply in coming days for travel later this summer. “Individuals who have not yet applied for a passport should not expect to be accommodated,” Knocke said. Lawmakers were critical. “This is further evidence that the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department are simply not ready to make this program work as well as it must,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
The application surge is the result of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative that since January has required U.S. citizens to use passports when entering the United States from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean by air. It is part of a broader package of immigration rules enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In a briefing this morning, Maura Harty, the assistant secretary for consular affairs, acknowledged that the State Department did not expect the flood of applications. “What we did not anticipate adequately enough was the American citizens’ willingness and desire to comply with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative in the timeframe that they did,” Harty said. Harty said the department had hired 145 people last month to work on the backlog and would hire 400 more people this quarter.
Last year, the agency processed 12.1 million passports. This year, officials expect to process about 18 million, she said. The department received 1 million applications in December, 1.8 million January and 1.7 million in February. Turnaround times for passports were bumped up from six to 10-12 weeks after the surge, Harty said. But 500,000 applications have already taken longer, she said. Carrying out the new rules while trying to process existing applications has been akin to “changing out the aircraft engine in flight,” she said. Still, the agency expects to eliminate the backlog and meet the new standard of 10-12 weeks before the end of September, she said.
Today’s’s change would help those like Judy and Darrell Green, of Rifle, Colo., who are still waiting to hear whether their son-in-law’s passport will arrive in time for a a family vacation to Mexico to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary and Darrell’s 60th birthday. Darrell Green’s passport arrived Thursday, only after Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., helped expedite it. Their son-in-law expects to get his Today with the help of his congresswoman. “It makes you feel kind of frantic because you’ve spent all that money,” Judy Green said. “It seems like this happens a lot in government. I don’t think it’s a bad law.
“DHS’s decision to suspend is simply common sense, and frankly, should have been made months ago,” Coleman said. This summer also may not spell the end of the passport crunch. Homeland Security has insisted it plans to go ahead with a January 2008 start for requiring passports at all land border crossing in the United States - a security measure that could trigger a new frenzy of applications. The State Department is still working on creating a cheaper, passcard alternative for such land crossings. Congress has given the State Department the flexibility to wait until June 1, 2009, to carry out the land and sea passport requirements. Today, he strongly urged the department to take them up on it. “They continue to insist on the January deadline,” Voinovich said of the administration.
Baja Safari NOW Editor
Earlier Alert
U.S. may postpone passport protocol
Posted: 2007-06-08 01:16:44 MST
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is poised to suspend a major post-Sept. 11 security initiative to cope with angry complaints from Americans whose summer vacations are threatened by new passport rules.
A proposal set to be announced as early as today will temporarily waive a requirement that U.S. passports be used for air travel to and from Canada and Mexico, provided the traveller can prove he or she has already applied for a passport, officials said yesterday.
The suspension in the rules is aimed at clearing a massive backlog of passport applications at the State Department that has slowed processing to a crawl, they said. Some officials said the change would last several months; others said as long as six months.
The proposal applies only to Americans, a U.S. official said. Canadian air travellers entering the U.S. will still need passports.
But it would be a balm to the Canadian tourism industry and others who rely on a steady stream of American visitors and are already losing money due to confusion about the new security rules.
The plan had run into opposition from the Homeland Security Department, which controls U.S. border points and fears the move could make it easier for terrorists or other undesirables to enter the country.
Instead of a passport, travellers will now be able to present a State Department receipt showing their passport application is being processed, and a government-issued ID such as a driver’s licence.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because the matter is still the subject of internal debate and details are not finalized.
But three of the officials said an announcement of the move could come as early as today.
