do i need a passport?
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free skin care · Thu Apr 06, 2006 7:50 pm

Im a canadian citizen and want to fly down to Las vegas soon... would i need a passport? or is a birth certificate and drivers lisence good enough?

free skin care · Thu Apr 06, 2006 7:51 pm

I'm pretty sure you don't need a passport to cross over from canada...just be sure to bring ID. And leave the illegal drugs and plants at home Wink

free skin care · Thu Apr 06, 2006 8:17 pm

Are you sure you don't need a passport to fly from Canada to the US? I know you don't need one if you drove but I think you need one if you are flying.

free skin care · Thu Apr 06, 2006 9:01 pm

I'd be seriously surprised if you don't need a passprt... then again, I'm not sure if there is some reciprocal arrangement between Canada and the US for their citizens. I think it would pay to invesitgate rather than assume and not be allowed to get on the plane.

Kiwigirl.

free skin care · Thu Apr 06, 2006 9:53 pm

You don't need one at the moment but the USA is fighting to change that. As long as you were born in canada, have your birth certificate and ID you're fine. If you do have a passport take it, even if it is expired...

free skin care · Fri Apr 07, 2006 3:38 am

Wow you learn something new everyday. You don't need a passport from CAN to US?????

OK do you need a passport to go from the US to Mexico and visa versa?

Sarah

Fri Apr 07, 2006 3:52 am

sarahb wrote:

OK do you need a passport to go from the US to Mexico and visa versa?

I don't think so. I went to Mexico for a day when I was in San Diego and, of course, I needed a passport but all the other people crossing the border were just showing their * spam * or something like that.

free skin care · Fri Apr 07, 2006 6:08 am

sarahb wrote:

Wow you learn something new everyday. You don't need a passport from CAN to US?????
OK do you need a passport to go from the US to Mexico and visa versa?

If you are an American, you do not need a passport to go from the U.S. into Mexico and back again. If you are Mexican, you're supposed to have a passport, but -- as we can tell from the current immigration reform controversy going on here right now -- not everyone enters the country legally. It's a helluva long border and it's simply not cost-efficient to build a fence or patrol every inch of it.

As for going in and out of Canada, my step-sister was Canadian and she would fly back and forth to go home and visit her dad in Toronto and never needed a passport. And when we would drive from Detroit to Toronto, crossing the border at Windsor and the guards more or less waved us through, not even asking if we were Canadian or American citizens. In fact, my ex-dad got pissed off at Chrissy one time for volunteering to the guard that she was Canadian while the rest of us in the car were American because he thought it meant the guard would demand some ID from everyone but the guard never even blinked an eye!

Although slightly O/T, this thread seemed like the ideal time to share this little horror story about a family visit to Mexico:

I grew up in Los Angeles (please don’t hold it against me! Wink

) and when I was about 7-8, my family went on vacation to San Diego to visit Sea World and MarineLand, but mostly so my ex-dad could try out the golf courses in La Jolla.

Anyway, while we were down there, my mom wanted to check out the Mexican art stuff so we took a day-trip across the border to Tiajuana. We spent the day shopping, eating and wandering the dusty streets, once wandering in to an area of the little border town that is normally frequented by sailors on leave and not necessarily a place for families with impressionable young children, but that’s a story for another time....

Okay, I think I’ve mentioned that I was adopted at birth, and I’m sort of the “cuckoo” in my family’s nest because I don’t really physically resemble my ex-dad, mom or older brother. They are all brunette with mostly medium/olive complexions that worshipped that Southern California sunshine when we’d drive to the beach at Malibu or Leo Carillo (sp?), while I’m the redheaded albino who bursts in to flames if I spend more than 2 minutes in the sun without covering.

My mom is also half-Cherokee Indian, so she not only has the afore-mentioned tanned, olive complexion, but she has strikingly high cheekbones and long, silky black hair and spent so much time broiling herself in the sun, lying out in our front (fenced) patio in nothing more than some pasties and a G-string that the Mexican immigrants who did the landscaping for the condominium complex where we lived always mistook my mom for a fellow Mexican and seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time clipping the hedges that bordered the stucco-covered walls of the patio where my mom was sunworshipping.

Okay, back to Mexico...after spending the entire day in Tijuana, we piled into our car with all the art and miscellaneous souvenirs that we managed to accumulate in 10 hours and drove to the border to cross back in to the U.S..

Imagine my horror and bewilderment when our car pulled up to the border guard’s kiosk and took one look at the occupants and decided to detain us for questioning. This surly-looking guard ordered my mom out of the car and ushered her to the detention center, convinced that she was a Mexican citizen and that my ex-dad was attempting to smuggle her across the border illegally, despite the fact that my mom had a wallet full of identification (we didn’t need passports to get in, remember?), credit cards and family photographs!

They ended up holding my mom for questioning for nearly eight hours before they finally, grudgingly released her and let us return to American soil, but during that entire ordeal I remained convinced that they were going to lock up my mom in some squalid Mexican prison and I would never see her again. I was screaming and crying, completely unconsolable, despite my big brother’s attempts to convince me that everything would be okay and that we weren’t going to go home without Mom....

That experience has so scarred me that I have utterly refused to set foott inside Mexico again, despite the fact that I leave only a few hours from the border where there is unparalleled shopping and food and where I could go to a Mexican pharmacy and get all of my myriad migraine prescription medications filled for mere pennies, where the same medicines cost me nearly two hundred bucks per month here in the U.S. – and that’s WITH my health insurance prescription plan discount/co-payment!! Shock

I am simply unable to forget that incident in Tiajuana long enough to go across the border for a day of food, fun, merriment and shopping.... Of course, the fact that dozens of Texans have gone missing in highly mysterious circumstances after crossing over for a Mexican day-trip excursion, causing American law enforcement officials to suspect this unsuspecting tourists were kidnapped by satanic cults or became victims of Xibalba, and sacrificed to Quetzalcoatl might also have something to do with my hesitancy!!

free skin care · Fri Apr 07, 2006 6:11 am

Going into Mexico as a Canadian ... according to the Passport Canada website, it is not mandatory for you to have a passport with you, just "sufficient identification to satisfy border officials of your identity and * spam *."

http://www.ppt.gc.ca/travel_tips/trip_planning_e.asp

According to this website and having a passport:

On September 1, 2005, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative proposal was formally submitted for public comment. The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative will require all U.S. citizens, citizens of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda, and citizens of Canada and Mexico to have a passport or other accepted secure document that establishes the bearer's identity and nationality to enter or re-enter the United States by January 1, 2008.

free skin care · Fri Apr 07, 2006 6:26 am

Interesting story Carekate. We have a friend from San Diego who travels across the border to Mexico to get all his furniture/carpets etc.

We're visiting San Diego later on in the year and as Brits I guess it's not going to be easy crossing the border into Mexico whilst we're there, not even sure if we would be allowed to do it, but it would be interesting to see a bit of Mexico... providing we could get back again safely!

free skin care · Fri Apr 07, 2006 6:46 pm

You currently don't need a passport to go from Canada to the United States. View this website for more info.

http://www.amcits.com/foreign.asp#canadians

Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:24 pm

sarahb wrote:

We're visiting San Diego later on in the year and as Brits I guess it's not going to be easy crossing the border into Mexico whilst we're there, not even sure if we would be allowed to do it, but it would be interesting to see a bit of Mexico... providing we could get back again safely!

To tell you the truth, there was *NO* control of passports or IDs when I was entering Mexico. I took the tram from San Diego, got off at the border, walked through the border and was looking for the "checkpoint" until I realised that I was already in Mexico. Of course, there is lots of security going the other way - back into USA Smile

Carrie - that would have been so traumatic for a kid, or for anyone for that matter! I had a similar experience (for different reasons) at the Russian border back in 1985 sometime and can still remember it to this day as if it happened yesterday.

free skin care · Sat Apr 08, 2006 9:54 am

one of my best friends (an american citizen) in los angeles flies frequently to see his fiancée in canada and he had to start carrying a passport after 9/11.

after many horror stories at the airports, i'd certainly get a passport now and be done with it. it's a good preventative and you'll have one should anybody invite you somewhere exotic for a last minute trip. (i actually missed a chance to fly on a Concord because i hadn't brought my passport with me to a trade show! Confused

i never travel without it now!)

free skin care · Sun Apr 09, 2006 7:54 am

I'm a Canadian and flew down to Las Vegas last summer for a family wedding. It was the first time I'd gone south since 9/11 and even with a passport, 2 kids and innocuous reason for the trip I was a bit disconcerted by the attitude of the immigration officer. Previously I would get a smile, wave and "have a nice time" but this time it was more serious and detailed questioning, making me feel like I was a suspect.

So even though the rules say it's still ok to travel to the US with just a birth cert and picture id, if your schedule allows, I'd suggest that you get a passport just to reduce the chances of being hassled. Too often we forget it's a privilege to cross the border, not a right.

free skin care · Mon Apr 17, 2006 7:43 pm

I just came back from a trip to New York. I was able to cross the border with my * spam * and * spam * Card. Smile

Tue Apr 18, 2006 9:41 am

As of today you DO NOT NEED a passport to cross from Canada to the US. Only birth certificate and phot ID. However, Effective Jan 1st 2007 you will need a paasport or some type of * spam * card (Canadian Government are coming up with)to leave and re-enter Canada. Check out the Customs Canada website for more info.

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