Immigration Law

What is a U.S. Passport Card?

By Robert Kraft

U.S. Citizens can apply for a passport card that allows re-entry into the U.S. at land border-crossings or sea ports-of–entry from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean region (which includes 17 nations), and Bermuda.

The 17 Caribbean nations are: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica (except for business travel), Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Turks and Caicos.

The passport card was designed to comply with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI which became effective June 1, 2009, for land and sea requirements). The card is a U.S passport and it attests to an individual's U.S. citizenship and identity.
 
There are security features on the card to mitigate the possibility of counterfeiting and forgery. Some of the advantages of the passport card are the convenience of having a wallet-size card, it is less expensive than the passport book ($45 for adults; $35 for minors under age 16), smaller than the book, and U.S. citizens who travel frequently to countries listed above don't have to take their U.S. passport book every time they seek to re-enter the U.S.
 
More information is available at www.travel.state.gov.

Full post as published by Immigration Law Answers Blog on June 17, 2009 (boomark / email).