Passport Law "What affect will it really have"

rt_0891 said:

I hate how you have to apply for a Canadian passport every five years. Really gets on my nerves.

US Passports are valid for ten years.

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I never got that one either. You'd think the US would make it shorter so that they could get more recent pictures and ensure the person still was safe to travel.

It would help @ the Canadian Passport Offices to make the term longer- the Mississauga passport office has like 2-3 hour lines most days, about 5-6 during the summer rush b/c everyone is renewing at the last minute. But once again, the government just wants our money.

It would help @ the Canadian Passport Offices to make the term longer- the Mississauga passport office has like 2-3 hour lines most days, about 5-6 during the summer rush b/c everyone is renewing at the last minute. But once again, the government just wants our money.

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I did mine at Adelaide and Victoria in early December (generally heavy due to Christmas) so I set aside an entire afternoon to get it done. Took all of 10 minutes.

Fill out all of the information online and ensure it is all properly signed, and you get bumped to the front of the line.

I think this is BS anyways. Maybe because I'm asian or non-white, but I've never been allowed over the border in Buffalo/The Falls without a passport. Most recently, 4 years ago I got rejected with just my drivers licence, but got through cause I had an old TN visa kicking around in my wallet (which I had out of my passport to photocopy to fax it). The INS agent told me that I always need a passport or citzenship card, and the TN visa proved that someone had verified my citizenship within the last year.

It's really gonna stink for me, because more than ever, I am travelling to the United States for everything from hockey games, baseball games, to concerts, to restaurants, theatre, photo taking, museums, attractions, a LOT of things, particularly to Buffalo and Detroit (sometimes Rochester), and I sure don't want to have to keep going to the same boring cities in my country for these kind of things (except the nice cities of London and Windsor, perhaps Niagara Falls). In fact since 2002, I have been to the U.S. 3x more often than I ever been in the first 20 years of life. I just wish getting a passport was 10x more simpler to get than what it is right now.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration appears to be delaying deadlines for a new ID system to enter and leave Canada in the face of heated opposition in the Senate.
A conflict within the administration itself over equipment is also complicating the government's plan to require high-tech identification cards by Jan. 1, 2008.

Calling the mandate for passports or passport-like PASS cards "a train wreck on the horizon," Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., has proposed delaying the restrictions by a year and half from the original 2008 deadline.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, is also expected to back the legislation. Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-Fairport, on Wednesday also voiced support for a time extention.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said he would look at Leahy's proposal but stopped short of fully endorsing it.

"If they don't figure this out in a way that is secure but also preserves the way of life in Western New York and across the northern border, we'd absolutely support a delay," Schumer said. "Right now we're focusing on making sure they are moving in the right direction."

In any case, the government seems to have backed off previously announced plans to promulgate regulations this year.

Slaughter said that the Bush administration has not budgeted any money for implementing the new identification program for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The Department of Homeland Security, Slaughter said, has not included in its plan for the period ending April 24, 2007, a provision for publishing regulations for implementing the new identification program.

"Congress must step in to provide direction and extend the deadline, so that DHS does not rush to implement a plan that is ill-conceived and unworkable," Slaughter said.

Jarrod Agen, Homeland Security spokesman, said the regulations will be published next spring. Following that would be a 60-day comment period, he said.

That means that regulations on imposing the new ID mandates for land crossings at the Canadian and Mexican borders might not be set until six months before the program is actually supposed to start.

In addition, plans to issue the PASS card this year have been put off until some time next year.

In the background is a tense bureaucratic fight between the two agencies that are supposed to design the PASS-card substitute for the passport - the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

The proposed People Access Security Service (PASS) cards could include digital photographs and radio frequency identification technology.

The State Department wants the PASS card to be readable by computers from only five inches away. Homeland Security wants it readable from 30 feet away - a requirement that critics say raises privacy problems.

Jim Williams, a Homeland Security official, said last week that the longer distance would allow the PASS system to automatically screen cardbearers against criminal watch lists and show data on the border guard's computer when the vehicle arrives at the station.

The conflict has muddled relations between Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and his Canadian counterpart, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.

After meeting with the homeland secretary, Day said Chertoff told him that driver's licenses and birth certificates would be accepted by American border agents as proof of identity even after 2008.

Later, Day withdrew his remarks. Slaughter asked Chertoff for a clarification but has not received one.



I personally hope for a permanent delay on this.