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Love Cruises? New Card Is Your Passport

U.S. Department of State

Applications for the passport card are being accepted. The cards will be issued starting next month.

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By NICOLA M. WHITE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 13, 2008

Updated: 06/13/2008 12:16 am

TAMPA - So long, bulky passport book. Hello, plastic card.

For U.S. citizens hopping on cruise ships to the Caribbean or crossing to Canada or Mexico by car, the State Department has introduced a wallet-sized swipe-y card that costs less than half the price of the traditional passport.

The catch: You can't fly with it. But for folks more prone to take a cruise to the Bahamas than fly to Barcelona, this is the cheaper, smaller alternative to the full-size passport, officials say.

"It's a great way to have proof of citizenship and identification, and it's the size of a credit card," said Ryan Dooley, regional director of the Miami Passport Agency for the U.S. Department of State.

Plus, by June 1, 2009, all travelers visiting those nearby countries will be required to have a passport; a certified birth certificate will no longer be sufficient as proof of citizenship.

The passport card will be available next month. Already, thousands of people in Tampa have applied, Dooley said Thursday in downtown Tampa, one of his stops on a Florida tour to promote the card.

The passport card contains all the vital information featured in a standard passport, minus the pages for cool stamps. It carries the cardholder's photograph and a chip inside that holds travel information.

U.S. citizens are currently required to present some form of ID proving their U.S. citizenship when they travel to and from border countries such as Mexico, Canada and the islands in the Caribbean. While some travelers carry passports, others bring certified copies of birth certificates.

The problem is, there are thousands of types of valid birth certificates in the United States, Dooley said.

Critics have surfaced, saying the passport card doesn't offer as much security as a regular passport. More than a dozen U.S. lawmakers in April sent a letter of concern to the State Department.

The State Department has tried to assuage those fears.

"It's a very secure document," Dooley said.

Costs for a certified birth certificate vary, but the cost of a passport card is $45 for an adult and $35 for a child. A regular passport costs $100 for an adult and $85 for a child.

The cruise industry doesn't see requiring passports or passport cards for cruisers as having a negative impact on cruise ship travel, said Lanie Fagan, director of communications of the Cruise Lines International Association.

The organization's research indicates that 72 percent of all cruise travelers carry passports anyway, she said.

GETTING THE CARD

Applications for the passport card are being accepted. The cards will be issued starting next month.

Key points: They are only valid for land or sea crossings between border countries such as Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda. They are not valid for traveling by plane.

To apply: Go to any passport application facility. One is the main Tampa post office at 5201 West Spruce St or the Pinellas County Clerk of Court at 1800 66 Street N in St. Petersburg. Find other sites at www.travel.state.gov.

Cost: $45 per adult; $35 per child for first-time applicants.

Timeframe: It will take about 4 weeks to process the application, officials estimate.

Details: http://travel.state.gov/passport/ppt_card/ppt_card... or call 1-877-4USA-PPT (1-877-487-2778).

Source: U.S. Department of State

Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (813) 259-7616 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com.

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