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U.S. relaxes some passport rules for children

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 23, 2007

DETROIT - U.S. and Canadian children will be exempt from new rules that will require travelers to show passports when entering the United States at land or sea borders, a move the Bush administration said Thursday is aimed at helping families and school groups.

The new passport requirements will take effect as soon as January 2008.

In a change from earlier plans, U.S. and Canadian citizens 15 or younger with parental consent will be allowed to cross the borders at land and sea entry points with certified copies of their birth certificates rather than passports.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff discussed the relaxation in rules at a speech Thursday to the Detroit Economic Club before touring the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, a link with Windsor, Ontario, under the Detroit River.

"This is going to make it a lot easier for kids to cross the border without having to get passports and passcards," Chertoff said. "By the way, it's specifically designed to make it cheaper for families."

U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 16 through 18 traveling with school, religious, cultural or athletic groups and under adult supervision also will be allowed to travel with only their birth certificates.

The rule is designed, for example, to allow hockey teams and other groups to go back and forth without disrupting their schedule, provided they are chaperoned, Chertoff said.

Beginning Jan. 23, nearly all air travelers entering the U.S. who are citizens of Canada, Mexico, Bermuda or the Caribbean, as well as returning American citizens, have been required to display passports. Children entering the United States by air will still be required to show passports.

When the new requirements for travelers crossing land and sea borders take effect, it will bring residents of Western Hemisphere nations under the same rules as travelers from the rest of the world.

[Last modified February 23, 2007, 01:22:56]