Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative Update

All the days where you expected a simple flash of your driver’s license or your beautiful tan to be a testimony of your ethnicity to travel from Cancun or the Caribbean are soon going to be over. From 1st of June 2009, the government of the United States is placing the laws of Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) into effect as a means of stabilizing and strengthening the borders involving Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, the Caribbean region and the United States.

You would need to get your Passport in order to go in and out of these multifold places. Therefore, the simplest solution to steering the government’s policies is to get a Passport. Even though you might be able to travel to a few of your neighboring places with only your license or Identification Card but in order to get in the States, you would need your Passport. To cut it short and that too, simply, you need to produce your passport, in order to travel home by air. According to the regulations of WHTI, you would even need to produce your passport if you are crossing the border checkpoint via a boat, in your car, or even by foot. The declaration of you citizenship would no longer work.

And just to recap the previous statements, WHTI now requires all the travelers to offer their passport or other “approved secure document” which denotes your identity and your citizenship for travel through sea, land or air. This regulation from WHTI is applicable to all the people of the United States, Canada or Bermuda who were formerly excused from providing their passports. Your options now strictly remain to present either your Passport or a membership of a Trusted Traveler Card program such as NEXUS which is used for travel involving the United States and Canada, or SENTRI which is used for travel linking the United States and Mexico.

Two new programs are also provided for your aid in order to provide accommodation for this initiative, they are, the U.S. Passport Card, which is fine for traveling through land or sea but would not wok for air travel. The second program is the Enhanced Driver’s License, which once again is only for land and sea travel and not for air. This card is presently only issued by the states of New York, Vermont and Michigan. All under the age of 16 are exempt from this and may only present their birth certificate. 

All the Mexican Citizens are not influenced by WHTI. The Mexican nationals, with the inclusion of children, are presently to show their passport with a non-immigrant visa. They can even show a laser visa Border Crossing Card in order to go across the U.S. border. This prerequisite is also applicable to the members of SENTRI program.

Get more information on Puerto Vallarta rentals, please contact pvrpv at the following numbers.  Their Mexican office number is 322.222.0638.  In case you are calling from the USA or Canada, call on their local Vonage number 206.388.3703. You can email to Tim at his email address. For more details visit pvrpv dot com which has been successfully servicing the tourists & local community for the past four years.  They have a qualified staff with years of experience and they may help you with rental properties in Puerto Vallarta.