PASSCARDS V PASSPORTS

Forums: Travel, Passports, Id Cards, Passcards
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June 1 , 2009 begins the requirement to have an official ID card for those travelling back and forth to Canada , Mexico, Caribbean, and Bermuds. Since we travel back and forth to Frederickton NB, we have applied for the passcards. (My wife wanted something that could just be kept in a vehicle rather than our passports.
We will be paying an extra 20 bucks each for the passcards, but if you dont have either a passport or passcard, its a good saving for routine travelers across the borders of North AMerica. I guess its good in Nun ivuit too. (Itll cost you 45 bucks if you dont have a passport book and you cant enter by plane for these countries)

45 bucks v 100 bucks, and its quicker to get .
www.travel.state.gov.

A passport is a pain to keep moving about and these are wallet or glove box carrier sizes.

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Type: Discussion • Score: 3 • Views: 2,997 • Replies: 8

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@farmerman,

really?

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@farmerman,

Well, I've got an ID-card all my life (first decades for free [the very first ID-card still is free], then slowly moving up with the fee to 8€ now [passport is 59€]).

We don't need to show papers when crosing the borders to Schengen countries - so I only need my ID-card when travelling to the UK. And the passport for my USA-trips (I didn't have one for ages at all).

Since it's always in my wallet - I don't forget it.

I'd like to have passcards instead of passports - but where can you get the stamps for the visas on them? Electronically?

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@Walter Hinteler,

In the US, we only have that option for land or boat transport betwen US and CANADA, MEXICO, CARIBBEAN, and BERNUDA. All others will still require a 'port book. We travel across to Canag=da several times a year and I am in Mexico for work about 1-5 times a year (except this past year )

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@farmerman,

But you don't need visas to go there, or do you?

If not: your "passcard" seems to be the same as any (European) ID-card.

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@Walter Hinteler,

nope, no visas.

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@farmerman,

Well, so it's what we call 'ID-card'.

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Is a passcard only used for passing a border or can you use it also as an ID within USA or would you still use your driver´s licence?
We don´t have to show an ID or passport as a rule travelling in EU, but we have to carry one all the time when travelling back into our own country from another EU country to prove we are citizens in our own country in case there is a check at the border. At least that is what we are told.

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@saab,

This card is merely a reduced physical piece of reference for your US identity whenever you cross between , say, Canada and the US. Its just a way to keep the US and Canadians from getting too pissed off with yet another layer of crap beurocracy. We all understood the need and were prepared for using our passports (OR, in the case where people cross borders DAILY for work, they would get the passport books which would have to be acjknowledged by stamp (I guess). The use of a card was to speed up the transactions at the border crossings.

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PASSCARDS V PASSPORTS

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