Re: [84attendees] passport cards and such, was YVR Checkin Counter

[Bede McCall <[e-mail]>]

You can use a US Passport Card instead of your passport book at all 
sea/land crossings between the US and either Canada or Mexico (for 
either inbound or outbound travel).   I forget what the card costs, but 
the basic story is that if you have a passport, for a fee you can get a 
passport card.  The card fits in your wallet, which is the use case that 
led to controversy when it first came out -- it has an embedded RFID 
chip that can be read at a fair distance, so State was compelled to 
issue a RF shielding  jacket with each card.  I've used my card at 
ground-level Canadian border crossings several times without a hitch, 
and have on occasion used it as ID (once due to a misplaced driver's 
license) for TSA.

To the very limited extent that I understand the situation with US 
Customs & Immigration, Global Entry simply gets you through inbound US 
customs/immigration via the kiosk instead of the booths at international 
airports -- you still need a passport book (but NOT the card) for the 
kiosk.  It doesn't cover driving, sailing or train crossings, for which 
either a Passport Card or book is OK.  I believe NEXUS works for any 
type of inbound (and apparently outbound) travel to(/from) Canada.  Some 
ground-level border crossings reportedly have dedicated drive-through 
lanes for NEXUS and SENTRI.  I suspect that one idea lurking behind the 
GE card is that you could use it as an ID card and possibly as a backup 
for TSA's PreCheck.  The thing about PreCheck is that it's supposed to 
be based on an encoding printed on the boarding pass;  my instincts say 
there will be quite a few TSA shirts out there who will insist on seeing 
the GE card regardless.

Much of the confusion that results from the welter of cards stems from 
the fact that there are multiple government agencies involved, each with 
a different mission/policy base and few of which communicate with each 
other in meaningful ways.  On the US side, State (Passport and Passport 
Card) doesn't have much to say to DHS (GE, PreCheck, ...) and within DHS 
the multiple agencies (e.g., TSA, CBP, ICE) don't have a strong history 
of cooperation.  The nascent TSA PreCheck program is a glimmer of hope, 
if only because TSA is basing PreCheck enrollment on the existing CBP 
Global Entry program rather than competing with CBP.

--Bede McCall

On 8/10/2012 10:54 AM, John R Levine wrote:
>> My understanding is that it serves in lieu of a passport for approved 
>> border crossings by car or boat, but since you already have a 
>> passport there is no real added benefit.
>
> The card fits in your wallet while your passport doesn't, unless you 
> have a rather larger wallet than most guys.  But the GE card is of 
> only marginal use since you can only use it to travel FROM Canada, not 
> TO Canada, so you need the passport anyway.  It does let you use the 
> NEXUS lane at a land border crossing, which the GE sticker in your 
> passport doesn't. That might be helpful since the border lines are 
> invariably longer going south than going north (except of course at 
> Detroit.)
>
> I haven't gone to Mexico in a long time, but it's of even less use 
> there because you can only use the SENTRI lane in a car that's been 
> enrolled. So either you're hitching a ride with someone else with 
> SENTRI, or you're walking bank to El Paso where there's a pedestrian 
> readylane.
>
> R's,
> John
>
>
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