The good news is that the requirement for a passport to return to the U.S. from Mexico, Canada or the Caribbean has been suspended until September 30, 2007. The bad news is that the rule was suspended because it we have an administrative mess on our hands from an overloaded passport-processing system.
Full disclosure: we need to renew all four passports in our family. To general disgust and dismay around the Seafarer/Fab Husband dining room table, however, we are not going to be able to afford to go anywhere outside of the U.S. for awhile (unless I score an incredibly lucrative writing gig somehow) so it’s a moot point. The expense of four renewals just can’t trump required purchases this summer like, oh, food (and my journey to Chicago in July to speak at the BlogHer blogging conference, of course. Let me hold on to my budgetary delusions, OK?)
Still, as a family that has lived and traveled internationally, I can tell you that once I left the Navy, I didn’t meet that many people who really paid attention to their passports or even had one. When the State Department began trumpeting this new rule last year and telling everyone to prepare, I shook my head and imagined chaos ahead.
It’s not that I’m some soothsayer, it’s just that people procrastinate before the unknown, and passports/international travel are an unknown to a lot of Americans. They seem to have forgotten that Canada, Mexico and most spots in the Caribbean are not in the United States (and anyway, they only saw glimpses of some of those places on day trips over the border or hopping off of a cruise ship for a few hours.)
Heck, folks from other countries have lost interest in visiting our country, and we can’t get in, either.
Technorati tags: travel, family travel, passports
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{ 2 comments }
Thanks for this timely information!
Many famililies, including mine from Fort Wayne, Indiana HAD BEEN thinking of visiting Puerto Limon, Costa Rica in September-early December when Cruise and Air prices are traditionally lowest.
NOT THIS YEAR (or maybe ever). As you so wonderfully and candidly stated at the end, many foreigners are opting for other places like CHINA, as they are beginning to be like Chicago-Gary and Fort Wayne were back in the late 1950′s and the 1960′s (PROSPEROUS).
Now, the Costa Ricans and Panamanians (our allies) would rather go by Cruiseship to China than pass through the “3rd degree intimidations and abuses” at Miami, Houston or 17 other USA Homeports.
I’m hoping some plain old “common sense” will once again show that the REAL AMERICAN PEOPLE from the Midwest-Central-Southern Plains Rural Areas are the most hospitable and friendly persons on earth, so we once again win back what 8 years of War in the Middle East has robbed from Rural USA.
God Bless the Rural USA.
Keep up your great family blog!
Max Hartman
Fort Wayne, IN
Chiriqui Grande,Panama
Puerto Limon, Costa Rica
Hi Max,
Thanks very much for your thoughts; yes, I agree that we are throwing out a lot of babies with the travel bathwater.
After 22 years on active duty in the Navy, I’m certainly informed about security issues, but we spend way too much time in reactive mode and needlessly angering those who used to think well of the U.S.
Don’t even get me started on our weak port security….
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