Wanted: Your Passport

As of today, March 1st 2010, Americans and Canadians arriving in Mexico by road or by sea (cruise liners excluded) and who intend to travel in Mexico beyond the 20km ‘frontier zone’ will need to present a valid passport to Mexican border officials.

To now, Americans and Canadians could present other forms of government-issued ID to enter Mexico by land or sea, for example, driver’s licenses, birth certificates, etc.

As of now, if you drive across the border or arrive by sea and travel inside Mexico beyond the 20km ‘frontier zone’, you will need to present your passport to the officials at the check-point as part of the internment procedure.

This latest enforcement has come about as part of Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative—WHTI.  The program requires all Americans and Canadians to present ‘a passport or other [WHTI approved] document that denotes identity and citizenship’ when returning home to their countries.  Today’s announcement folds Mexico’s immigration procedures into the WHTI protocol.

Americans have needed a WHTI approved hi-tech document (such as a machine-readable or biometric passport) for air travel to Mexico since January 23, 2007 and, according to the Mexican immigration authorities, since this date, virtually all visitors emanating from the USA and Canada have used a passport as their means of identification and entry.

People who travel by road or sea to Mexico and who do not travel beyond the ‘frontier zone’ (including passengers visiting Mexico from cruise ships) are not affected as they are classed as ‘local visitors’.

You can find detailed information about Mexico entry procedures, as well as immigration, here on Mexperience.

Americans and Canadians can acquire detailed information about the WHTI program at http://www.getyouhome.gov