The New Passport Card and the Old Passport
by Pam

First things first, the editorializing. Pay the extra bucks and get a real passport, already, okay? Now, from the State Department:

The passport card facilitates entry and expedites document processing at U.S. land and sea ports-of-entry when arriving from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda. The card may not be used to travel by air. Otherwise, it carries the rights and privileges of the U.S. passport book and is adjudicated to the exact same standards.--US DoS

What? Huh? Budget Travel has nailed the Q&A on the new ID including answering the "Why would I bother" question.

Think of passport cards as similar to—though not exactly like—the EZ Pass electronic toll collection system that's popular on Northeast toll roads. Border officers can access photographs and biographical information on your passport card from 20 feet away because each card contains a radio frequency identification chip. Officers pull up your info on their electronic devices before you reach them, speeding up the process. Your traditional passport can't do that.

Though I suspect it's a matter of your traditional passport can't do that...YET.

And what about that RFID chip that's in there? There's a very short thread on the Rick Steves boards that explains what that thing does - and the state department isn't exactly hiding that information. The chip holds a code, the code points to your records. Word is that there's no data beyond that code in the chip.

The house is again pushing the Lonely Planet sponsored (whoa, there are Lonely Planet lobbyists?) National Passport Month for September. From the CBS5 newswire:

The resolution calls on President Bush to urge state and federal entities to observe the month with ceremonies and educate people on the benefits of international travel.

"Traveling abroad promotes understanding and goodwill,'' Lee stated. "When people connect with other people, it opens the doors to increased peace, tolerance and acceptance.''

I can get behind this. The number of Americans with passports is still under 30% The only thing I can see wrong with this plan is that National Passport Month should be in early spring when we're all planning our summer getaways. It takes time to get a passport and you don't want to leave it for the last minute.

Are you still reading this? Go get your passport, already.

Photo from hjl on Flickr

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View. Join the conversation about traveblogging in the Travelblogger's Forum.

Submitted by Pam (view blog) on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 10:28

Comments

 

I've heard of people who

I've heard of people who have gotten both the passport and the card, which seems a little silly to me. Their reasoning was that they go across the border into Canada quite often and the card is 'good' for that and they use the passport for 'international' travel. I don't get it. I suppose people who only intend to go across US borders would find having only the card beneficial, but I bet most of them don't know about the chip.

 

Kimberly Kradel
Producer/Editor
artist-at-large.com

Submitted by kimba on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 10:04
 

But Yike$

I need to renew mine, and those of my children, and it's the cost holding me back as we don't yet know if we will have to sell one of the children to afford international travel.  Why in the world do they cost so much?  The passports, not the kids.  I know why they cost so much!  Would not consider the card - it's just one more thing to keep track of, and you can't exactly get it stamped for posterity.

Submitted by MealMixer on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 12:13
 

Doesn't this scare anyone?

I mean, I guess I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but this seems like the infrastructure that a corrupt government would need to track people down and control more than they should. The RFID is basically a GPS chip. Yeah, it may make things faster when you go across the boarder, but I don't know if I would want to be on a permanent grid more than I already am (GPS, Income Taxes). Am I the only one? Isn't anyone else a little skeptical? If you're interested in learning more about the RFID you can check out this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7se4gFTCys

or you can see the whole movie here:

www.zeitgeistmovie.com

 

Submitted by Annievict on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 12:44
 

RFID? Inherantly Evil or Not?

I think about this all the time, yup, I sure do. I have an old, unchipped passport that's good until 2011, shockingly, that is not far away. I'm one of those people who is wondering if I can smash it with a hammer or run over it with my car or something to disable the chip. I've read the articles on how to hack your RFID chipped whatever in Wired and yeah, it scares me. 

But the idea of being WITHOUT a passport scares me MORE. 

 

Nerd's Eye View

Submitted by Pam on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 12:53
 

inherantly evil?  i think

inherantly evil?  i think not? 

inherantly accessible?  yes, by design.  These things were not designed to be secure, they were designed to be read.  and that worries me.  if somebody (anybody) can read it from 20 feet away - maybe they only get a code, but then that code can be used to impersonate you.  thats something i find scary.

 

 

I think I have a recipe for that...

Submitted by kazari on Thu, 07/31/2008 - 15:54
 

Hmmm...

 I just got one of the new fancy "chip toting" passports a few months ago. It is a little scary, but if you need a passport, that's what you get, unfortunately.   As for the card, I don't know anyone who has one, do you?  What is the cost of it?  I guess it could work if you never, ever, ever wanted to fly anywhere internationally.  What about going on a cruise?

 

 Andrea

www.Kayoh190.com

Submitted by Kayoh on Wed, 08/06/2008 - 16:58