As part of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, all travellers entering the United States by air or by sea were required to have a valid passport by January 8, 2007. The original requirement called for passports by January 1, 2007 however a short delay had been granted in August to accomodate the busy holiday travel season.

Thanks to the Stevens-Leahy Amendment to the 2007 Homeland Secruity Appropriations Bill thing just got a bit more complicated.

For travellers entering the US via sea, passports will be required NO LATER THAN June 1, 2009. Passports for air travelers will still be required this January.

What this means for you the cruiser: If you enter the US via a cruise ship that has visited a foreign port, you do not need to passport to enter the US.

If your cruise ship voyage ends outside the US regardless of where it originated from, and you must fly back to the US, you WILL be required to have a valid passport to enter the US.

This information is brand new, and the US State Department’s website travel.state.gov has not been updated to reflect the new requirements. We expect the site to be updated to reflect the new rules soon.

The reason behind the regulation change is to allow the government to develop an economical alternative to passports called the PASScard. Considering that a passport will now cost you $97 we can understand why there might be a push to implement something that isn’t quite so expensive. While a final prices hasn’t been decided, it’s looking like a PASScard will cost around $50 and only be valid for 5 years as opposed to the 10 years a passport is valid for.

The key piece of information though is that passports will STILL be required for travelers entering the US by plane.

For information about obtaining a passport be sure to visit the US State Department’s website. Again we expect the site to be updated soon with the new passport requirements.

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