New Passport Cards Required by 2008
 

A U.S. proposal to require passports from everyone crossing the Canada-U.S. border has been scrapped in favour of a new security card.

The so-called PASS (People Access Security Service) card is the size of a credit card, costs half of what a passport would, and will contain a special ID that could be read metres away at border crossings, according to administration officials.

It?ll be required by Jan. 1, 2008, from all Americans, Canadians and Mexicans arriving in the United States over land.

"We're talking about, essentially, the kind of driver's licence or other simple card identification that almost all of us carry in our wallets day in and day out," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

"This new People Access Security Service, or PASS system card, will be particularly useful for those citizens in border communities who regularly cross northern and southern borders every day as an integral part of their daily lives."


http://www.pulse24.com/News/Top_Stor...8-004/page.asp

I think get a passport and you are set rather than a card and then if ever you need to go outside of North American then you would need a passport again.

i was wondering what awas gonna happenn there

I think the ID cards are a fine idea.

Personally, most of us are used to the Internet with is essentially business without borders. We now live in a global community, security standards should be the same worldwide. A standardized ID card is a great way to keep the unruly in check.

I live right on the border in Canada and cross into the States everyday to go to work. I think the card idea is a great plan. The have "Nexus" cards now, but you have to go to both the US and Canadian side to be approved. Either way, I have my passport already, so I could care less.

I live at the border to the US/ Mexico, and go into the US all the time. the wiat is on average of 40min to 4 hours. I can not imagine the lines the day they make these cards go into effect.

I wish the UK would take some initiave from the US.

By the looks of things it sounds as though you have everything all figured out. We are still debating ID cards. People over there think it is an "invasion of privacy" but I still stick to my guns. If it makes things safer from terrorism and all other sorts of nasties that the country has been in lately then why not!

Any word on the cost for one of these cards? Will it be a yearly charge, or one time?

We live 10 mins. from the border here in Niagara, but I don't need to go into the U.S. that badly if I gotta pay additional for a card (on top of bridge tolls).

Soon the dollar will be at par anyways...and there won't be a reason to go over the river anyways.

If this should go through look for Canada to do the same for all US citizens coming into Canada.

"A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither"

-Thomas Jefferson