Media Credit: Source: www.travel.state.gov

UT geology students and their professors travel south on a regular basis to study Mexico's natural springs, but not without their passports.

Passport laws for land travel have changed again, requiring all U.S. and Canadian travelers going to Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative countries by land or sea to show a passport as early as summer 2008. These countries include Mexico, Canada, Bermuda and much of the Caribbean region. Proposed guidelines would have required passports for land and sea travel as early as January 2008, but the date was moved back as part of a "phase-in" initiative, said Steve Royster, consular affairs spokesman for the U.S. Department of State.

"While passports are necessary to secure the safety of Americans, we want the implementation to be smooth," he said.

The Department of Homeland Security proposed the rule to require passports for land travel in September 2005, and has had more than two years to phase it in. Critics of the changing land travel law said the delayed implementation has confused border residents.

One of the biggest travel problems facing border residents is the "ambiguous deadline from the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of State," said Diana Lauritson, policy and project coordinator for the Border Trade Alliance, a grass-roots organization that addresses issues affecting trade and economic development in North America. Lauritson said border residents are confused about what proof of documentation must be shown when crossing the border and when they are required to show it.

Starting Jan. 31, 2008, all U.S. and Canadian residents will be required to show a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver's license, plus proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, when traveling to Western Hemisphere countries by land or sea, according to the U.S. Department of State's Web site. At an unspecified date this summer, border crossers must show either a U.S. passport or other approved forms of identification.

It takes about four to six weeks to receive a passport once proper documents have been filed, so Royster said now would be a great time to apply.

Geological sciences graduate student Brad Wolaver, who organizes the geology trips to Mexico, said he takes his students into the country's interior to learn about water management and to test the temperature and water quality of the springs in the Chihuahuan Desert. He said everyone is required to show a passport at an interior Mexican checkpoint, even after they have passed through the border checkpoints.

"Passports are something students are required to have to participate in the trips, so anyone who comes with us already has a passport," Wolaver said.

Congress passed legislation changing international travel laws to protect Americans, but Lauritson said she and other border residents feel lawmakers did not think through all aspects of passport laws before they were approved.

"We're very fearful and concerned because we don't know the effects passports will have on the border and traveling communities," she said. "It hasn't been fully thought through about how passport laws are going to be implemented and enforced."

For more information on the law and where to apply for a passport, visit: www.travel.state.gov.

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