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Posts Tagged ‘International Countries’

One of the beauties of traveling to Mexico and Canada has always been that there was never a need to have a passport to make the trip. Now imagine having planned and paid for a trip over a year ago and then realizing that a USA passport application to Cancun may be needed because of the new laws that are in effect. It will depend on what type of a trip is being made, but chances are a passport will be needed.

While it is not generally assumed that if a traveler is leaving US soil for any reason, they will need a pasport. With Cancun being located in a foreign country, it would only make sense that a passport would be needed to go there. This is probably true in most cases, but there are still a few circumstances when a passport may actually not be needed.

Everything changed in regards to travel in June of 2009. The United States went from requiring nothing more than a driver’s license or birth certificate to cross back in from border countries to requiring passport documentation. This is a significant change and one that many people are still not fully aware of.

Anyone traveling to Cancun will most definitely need a passport. Since the new passport laws cover sea travel, logic dictates that anyone on a cruise to Cancun would also need a passport. However, there is one exception in the sea travel clause.

The one loophole in the new passport laws are related to trips categorized as “closed loop” voyages. This is a cruise ship trip that starts in a US port and ends up in a US port. Because the traveler is not technically leaving the ship, meaning one-way travel, they can get away with only having a driver’s license on their trip. However, there are restrictions involved in the actual destinations of these cruises.

Approved international countries include: Mexico, Canada, Bermuda, the Virgin Islands, and select Caribbean Islands. That being the case, a passport is not necessary for a closed loop cruise to Cancun. However, a closed loop cruise to South America would necessitate a passport.

All of these changes were made because of Homeland Security. It is no secret that border security was pretty lax, especially on the Canadian and Mexican borders. People were literally coming and going as they pleased. In order to secure the borders, these new passport laws were put in place to make it more difficult for people to get across the border into the United States.

Anyone traveling to Cancun from the United States will almost certainly need to fill out a passport application. The only time a passport to Cancun is not necessary is when a person is traveling to Cancun in a closed loop cruise. Any other form of travel will require that a valid passport is in hand or that person will risk not being able to enter the foreign country.