Passport Cards Are Simple To Use When Leaving The USA
December 30th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
Our Top Travel Resource - You Won't Believe What You're Reading! Are you traveling outside the United States? Then you’ll most likely need to get a US passport. Depending on your destination and mode of travel, you can either use a regular passport book or a passport card as your official travel document. In this article, we’ll be dealing with the passport card, including your questions about what a Passport card application is, and how to acquire one. First off, a US passport card is an affordable and lightweight alternative to your passport book. It is wallet-size, making it easier to store than the larger passport book, and is obviously a lot thinner as well. It is also a lot cheaper than a regular passport book, costing around half of the price of a passport book. Before you apply for one, you should first know the travel requirements for your destination of choice. You should know outright that you can only use your passport card when traveling by land or sea to destinations in the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). Territories included here are Bermuda, Canada, the Caribbean, and Mexico. Now if you’re planning of travel to destinations apart from the list, then you’ll need the passport book. The use of a passport card is also limited to land and sea travel. Therefore, you can use your passport card only when traveling to WHTI areas using a car, or through ships. What if you are to travel by air? You will then have to present your passport book instead of your passport card. However, if you travel to both types of destinations (WHTI and non-WHTI areas), then you could opt to apply for both types of Passport card as well. This allows you to travel to one destination and meet the necessary documents needed to get there. That way you could travel by land to a WHTI area one day, then travel to an Asian country in the next. Plus, there’s also a huge discount if you apply for both passports. When applying for a passport card, you’ll need to determine if you’re already a previous passport holder. If you are, then you can apply for your passport card by mail. To do this, you’ll have to fill the Form DS-82, and provide other requirements that may be needed. You’ll also need to do this even if you’re getting your passport card for the first time. In case your passport card will be your first passport, then you’ll have to fill in the Form DS-11. The great thing about having a passport card is that it’s so convenient to use. This is mainly because of the radio frequency identification (RFID) chip that’s embedded on your card. Now all the US Customs have to do is to scan your card, and they will get all the information they need to provide proof of your identity and citizenship.
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