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Thread: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

  1. #1
    Free Exy Cluricaun's avatar
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    Default Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    The last time I did so from the continental US was back in 1999 when all they wanted was a drivers license and to make sure you only had a few packs of smokes on you. I understand now that you need a passport to enter into Canada, but do you need a passport if you’re only seeking passage to another part of your own country? I really can’t see one being able to make some sort of declaration to customs that “I demand free passage to the great frozen north of our fine country” or some such twaddle actually working, but is there some sort of provision that allows free travel between Americas?
    Hell, if I didn't do things just because they made me feel a bit ridiculous, I wouldn't have much of a social life. - Santo Rugger.

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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Yes, you still need your passport. Unfortunately, the Canada Border Services Agency does not simply take everyone's word as to their identity and intentions.

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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    No.
    The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) requires U.S. and Canadian travelers to present a passport or other document that denotes identity and citizenship when entering the U.S. It is a result of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA).

    The goal of WHTI is to facilitate entry for U.S. citizens and legitimate foreign visitors, while strengthening U.S. border security. Standard documents will enable the Department of Homeland Security to quickly and reliably identify a traveler.

    WHTI will go into effect June 1, 2009 for land and sea travel into the U.S. WHTI went into effect for air travelers on January 23, 2007.
    Source: http://www.getyouhome.gov/html/eng_map.html

    U.S. citizens can present a valid: U.S. Passport; Passport Card; Enhanced Driver’s License; Trusted Traveler Program card (NEXUS, SENTRI or FAST); U.S. Military identification card when traveling on official orders; U.S. Merchant Mariner document when traveling in conjunction with official maritime business; or Form I-872 American Indian Card, or (when available) Enhanced Tribal Card.
    WHTI Fact Sheet

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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    You need the same documentation to drive between the lower 48 and Alaska, in either direction, as you need to enter Canada from the US in general. There are no special provisions for people who are entering Canada for the sole purpose of traveling between the two.

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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Quote Originally posted by Cerowyn
    Unfortunately...
    I'm not sure that I would consider this to be unfortunate.

  6. #6
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Check the official site to be sure, but I believe I recently read that they passed legislation that *requires* a passport to get into Canada now. The boarder isn't "open" anymore. (I'd bring my passport to be sure.) Yep...

    KXYL.com article:

    The rules for travel to Canada are about to change. Starting June 1st, every United States citizen crossing the Canadian border will need a passport to enter and exit the countries.
    <snip>
    Once the new rule takes effect, using one of the following will be accepted: A U.S. or Canadian Passport, A U.S. Passport Card, A Trusted Traveler Card or an enhanced driver's license, which is offered by a limited number of states and provinces. Washington State does offer Enhanced Driver's Licenses.

    There are exceptions to the rule. Those under the age of 16 can still show a birth certificate at the Canadian boarder for exit and re-entry

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    Free Exy Cluricaun's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    I really want an enhanced tribal card now. I have no idea what that is, but it sounds pretty cool.

    I'm going to have to break down and get my passport then. Oh well. Thanks all!
    Hell, if I didn't do things just because they made me feel a bit ridiculous, I wouldn't have much of a social life. - Santo Rugger.

  8. #8
    Clueless but well-meaning Hatshepsut's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Quote Originally posted by Whiskey and Ryan
    I really want an enhanced tribal card now. I have no idea what that is, but it sounds pretty cool.
    Sorry for the hijack, but that reminds me of some documents my husband and I cherish from our days in Micronesia - first, our goofy-looking drivers licenses (which identify our "ethnicity" as "USA") and for my husband, a "Yap drinking card." For whatever reason, the island of Yap decided you needed a permit to order alcohol in a bar. The law was always ignored and there was no real need to have one, but who could resist?

  9. #9
    Porosity Caster parzival's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Quote Originally posted by Whiskey and Ryan
    I really want an enhanced tribal card now. I have no idea what that is, but it sounds pretty cool.

    I'm going to have to break down and get my passport then. Oh well. Thanks all!
    If all you are doing, or plan on doing for a while, is to drive through Canada, a Passport Card is a cheaper (and possibly faster/more convenient) option. It's good for surface travel only between the US and Canada, Mexico, and some of the Caribbean.

  10. #10
    Yes, I'm a cat. What's it to you? Muffin's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    No, an American entering Canada from the USA does NOT require a passport.

    Yes, an American entering the USA from Canada DOES require a passport (or one of the alternates listed above). The requirement was initially only for flying, but was extended to all modes, including driving, on 1 June 2009. To avoid the problem of Americans becoming stranded in Canada, US Border Services is temporarily still allowing Americans to drive into the USA from Canada with only drivers' licences, but is advising them to not do it again.

  11. #11
    Yes, I'm a cat. What's it to you? Muffin's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Ignore the nonsense that some American media have put out stating that Americans must show a passport to enter into Canada. That's just bad journalism. Just because the USA requires Americans to have passports to enter into the USA does not mean that Canada requires Americans to have passports to enter into Canada. http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/security-sec ... ng.html#s1

    In other words, if you are an American and you want to drive from the USA (contiguous) to Canada to the USA (Alaska), you will not need a passport to get into Canada, but you will need one to get into Alaska (although at the moment there is a grace period waiving the passport requirement temporarily).

  12. #12
    Oliphaunt featherlou's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    So, US Americans can get out, but they can't get back in? Not doubting you, Muffin - that just sounds really weird to me.

  13. #13
    my god, he's full of stars... OneCentStamp's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Quote Originally posted by featherlou
    So, US Americans can get out, but they can't get back in? Not doubting you, Muffin - that just sounds really weird to me.
    It isn't Canada, but I went on my honeymoon in 1998 to the U.S. Virgin Islands, and didn't think to bring my passport. I had no problem getting there; nobody even asked for anything. Getting back, I had huge problems, not helped by the fact that I wasn't born in the U.S. and neither was my one living parent. They simply refused to let me back into the U.S. without a passport. Finally, my mom back home had to fax them a copy of my Certificate of Birth Abroad. All in all, it was about an hour delay.
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    Maximum Proconsul silenus's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    If you never get a passport, does that mean Canada has to keep you? Seems like this would be a way around the emigration regulations. Or would they finally just send you back to the US whether the US wanted to accept you or not?
    "The Turtle Moves!"

  15. #15
    Yes, I'm a cat. What's it to you? Muffin's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Nope, Canada would not have to keep the person, who would be deported back to the country from which the person entered Canada. That country would decide whether to treat the person as a citizen etc. or as an illegal imigrant from yet another country to which the person would be further deported.

    Presently, the USA is still permitting Americans to return to the USA from Canada without meeting the new passport requirements.

  16. #16
    Oliphaunt featherlou's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    If I'm thinking about this correctly, this becomes a problem when the person wishes to go back to the US, not the place of their birth or where they entered from.

    Jimbo and I just got our passports when we first decided to visit the US, and our border crossings have been as smooth as could be desired. Plus, we learned from the beer clerk at Wrigley Field that a passport is the only valid id to get a beer there for foreigners.

  17. #17
    Yes, I'm a cat. What's it to you? Muffin's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Probably the best way to think of it is to try to not think about it. Each country has its own laws, and sometimes these laws conflict with each other, or leave gaps that cause people difficulties. Don't try to make any sense of it. Canadian law says that Americans don't need passports to get into Canada. American law says that everyone (with a few exceptions, e.g. those returning on American military service), including Americans, need passports to enter the USA. Don't assume that the two nations' laws mesh together, for they do not.

    Back at the dawn of time, I opened a door to a stairwell at one of the University of Toronto's libraries, entered the stairwell, walked down the stairs, but then could not open the door at the bottom of the stairs to exit the stairwell. I walked up the stairs again, but could not get out of the stairwell through the door from which I had initially entered. I was stuck in the stairwell. It was stupid for the University to have set things up that way, not to mention insanely unsafe, but knowing that was cold succor at the time, for the fact remained that the doors to the staricase were one way only. The same could be said for Americans without passports -- the Canadian border is like the one way doors into the stairwell. Americans can enter into Canada, but cannot return to Canada without a passport, and the laws that each nation has do not give a flying fig about the problem this gap in laws creates. Don't try to find any rationality in it.

  18. #18
    Yes, I'm a cat. What's it to you? Muffin's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Ever sing “Charlie and the MTA”? It could very well happen at my local border crossing this winter (although most of the officials on both sides here are sensible types who would sort out a “Charlie and the MTA” situation quite quickly.)

    Now that the Canadian officers have started carrying handguns, they are finding that their winter coats no longer fit. They ordered new coats, but several months later the coats still have not arrived, and they are saying that they will not perform vehicle searches when it is cold without having their coats. That means that if you are an American and try to cross the border to visit me to go skiing, but forget your passport, you could find yourself sent back across the bridge because the Canadian border guard does not have a properly fitting coat, but then find yourself unable to get back into the USA because you do not have a passport.

    If that happens, call me on your cell, I’ll pop down to Sven and Ole’s in the USA, and pick up a most excellent pizza for you to eat while you remain stranded on a bridge in limbo between the two border offices.

  19. #19
    Yes, I'm a cat. What's it to you? Muffin's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Quote Originally posted by Muffin
    Probably the best way to think of it is to try to not think about it. Each country has its own laws, and sometimes these laws conflict with each other,Americans can enter into Canada, but cannot return to Canada without a passport, and the laws that each nation has do not give a flying fig about the problem this gap in laws creates. Don't try to find any rationality in it.
    Whoops, that should read ". . . cannot return to the USA without a passport." Missed the edit window.

  20. #20
    Yes, I'm a cat. What's it to you? Muffin's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    And before any smartasses say that I will be stuck in limbo too, remember the wise words of Arlo: “You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singing a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization.”

    All I’d have to do is wait for one more person to get trapped on the bridge with us for us to be deemed an organization, which would make us eligible for the USA’s special rendition program. Given the choice, which would you prefer, paying for an expensive lift ticket to go snowboarding in the cold in Canada, or being provided a free flight and free accommodation to go wakeboarding in Syria or some other warm country?

  21. #21
    Oliphaunt featherlou's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Well, put that way, I'ma have to go to Ontario and get stuck on the border this winter.

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    Oliphaunt jali's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Quote Originally posted by CairoCarol
    Quote Originally posted by Whiskey and Ryan
    I really want an enhanced tribal card now. I have no idea what that is, but it sounds pretty cool.
    Sorry for the hijack, but that reminds me of some documents my husband and I cherish from our days in Micronesia - first, our goofy-looking drivers licenses (which identify our "ethnicity" as "USA") and for my husband, a "Yap drinking card." For whatever reason, the island of Yap decided you needed a permit to order alcohol in a bar. The law was always ignored and there was no real need to have one, but who could resist?
    Do you read Jack Vance? The Yaps were a beautiful and golden, but lazy race.
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    Elephant Myglaren's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Quote Originally posted by jali
    Quote Originally posted by CairoCarol
    Quote Originally posted by Whiskey and Ryan
    I really want an enhanced tribal card now. I have no idea what that is, but it sounds pretty cool.
    Sorry for the hijack, but that reminds me of some documents my husband and I cherish from our days in Micronesia - first, our goofy-looking drivers licenses (which identify our "ethnicity" as "USA") and for my husband, a "Yap drinking card." For whatever reason, the island of Yap decided you needed a permit to order alcohol in a bar. The law was always ignored and there was no real need to have one, but who could resist?
    Do you read Jack Vance? The Yaps were a beautiful and golden, but lazy race.
    It has been a very long time but I loved his "Demon Princes" series, especially Malagate The Woe and the Sarkoy Poisoners.
    Lightly Seared On The Reality Grill

  24. #24
    Yes, I'm a cat. What's it to you? Muffin's avatar
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    Default Re: Do you need a passport to drive to Alaska?

    Latest news: 22% drop in vehicle crossings at my local crossing for June this year when compared against June last year. I wonder how much is due to the recession, and how much is due to the American passport regs? Not good for the tourism industy which is so important here.

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    Elephant Tuckerfan's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Muffin View post
    Nope, Canada would not have to keep the person, who would be deported back to the country from which the person entered Canada. That country would decide whether to treat the person as a citizen etc. or as an illegal imigrant from yet another country to which the person would be further deported.

    Presently, the USA is still permitting Americans to return to the USA from Canada without meeting the new passport requirements.
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  26. #26
    Yes, I'm a cat. What's it to you? Muffin's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Tuckerfan View post
    Ooooh, shades of
    Quote Originally posted by Tuckerfan View post


    That reminds me of the “Key to Canada” incident. A couple of weeks ago, two of my friends wanted to go kayaking along the river that bounds Canada and the USA just south of TBay. To do this, they surrendered their ID at the Canadian border office in exchange for the Key to Canada. The Key to Canada is a key that unlocks a gate in the fence that parallels the road and bridge between the Canadian and American border offices at that crossing. The gate is used for access to the river on the Canadian side by paddlers and fishermen. Since carrying sea kayaks is a pain in the ass (or to be correct, a pain in the shoulders), my friends drove to the gate and parked there.

    In the evening, my friends pulled their boats out of the river, tied them on their car’s roof, and drove back to the Canadian border office to return the Key to Canada and retrieve their ID. Rather than wait in a line of cars to pass through the drive-through immigration wicket, and knowing that they would have to enter the office, they parked and began to walk to the building to trade the Key to Canada for the ID at the office where they had originally traded their ID for the Key to Canada, just as they had done many times before without incident. This was a big mistake on their part, for unfortunately, by that time there had been a shift change. Even more unfortunately, a newbie was now on shift. Most unfortunately, the newbie was not used to people parking and waking to the building, rather than waiting in a line of cars.

    The newbie had no clue concerning the Key to Canada, and took great offence at the two people parking and beginning to walk to the office. I guess he thought they were terrorists who wanted to blow up the border office without damaging their vehicle. (I wonder what the newbie would have done if people had simply walked from the USA sans vehicle – that crossing is not set up for pedestrians, given that it is in the middle of nowhere.) The newbie ran out of the building, hand on holster (our border officers have recently been armed), shouting at my friends to get back in their car. The newbie then insisted on seeing my friends’ ID, to which my friends responded “You have our ID. Here is the Key to Canada.”

    The newbie insisted that without ID they must return to the USA. Needless to say, that command was not received nicely, given that they had not come from the USA, they were Canadians and not Americans, the Americans do not let people in the USA without ID, and their ID was in the newbie’s office. The newbie refused to believe them, and repeated the command that they must return to the USA.

    Eventually a more senior officer came out to see what the kerfuffle was about, explained the Key to Canada to the newbie, returned my friends’ ID to them, and let them enter Canada despite their never having left it.
    Last edited by Muffin; 05 Sep 2009 at 06:30 AM.

  27. #27
    Yes, I'm a cat. What's it to you? Muffin's avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Tuckerfan View post
    Ooooh, shades of
    Quote Originally posted by Tuckerfan View post


    That reminds me of the “Key to Canada” incident. A couple of weeks ago, two of my friends wanted to go kayaking along the river that bounds Canada and the USA just south of TBay. To do this, they surrendered their ID at the Canadian border office in exchange for the Key to Canada. The Key to Canada is a key that unlocks a gate in the fence that parallels the road and bridge between the Canadian and American border offices at that crossing. The gate is used for access to the river on the Canadian side by paddlers and fishermen. Since carrying sea kayaks is a pain in the ass (or to be correct, a pain in the shoulders), my friends drove to the gate and parked there.

    At the end of the day, my friends pulled their boats out of the river, tied them on their car’s roof, and drove back to the Canadian border office to return the Key to Canada and retrieve their ID. Rather wait in a line of cars to pass through the drive-through immigration wicket, they parked and began to walk to the building to trade the Key to Canada for the ID at the office where they had originally traded their ID for the Key to Canada. This was a big mistake on their part, for unfortunately, by that time there had been a shift change. Even more unfortunately, a newbie was now on shift. Most unfortunately, the newbie was not used to people parking and waking to the building, rather than waiting in a line of cars.

    The newbie had no clue concerning the Key to Canada, and took great offence at the two people parking and beginning to walk to the office. I guess he thought they were terrorists who wanted to blow up the border office without damaging their vehicle. (I wonder what the newbie would have done if people had simply walked from the USA sans vehicle – that crossing is not set up for pedestrians, given that it is in the middle of nowhere.) The newbie ran out of the building, hand on holster (our border officers have recently been armed), shouting at my friends to get back in their car. The newbie then insisted on seeing my friends’ ID, to which my friends responded “You have our ID. Here is the Key to Canada.”

    The newbie insisted that they must return to the USA. Needless to say, that command was not received nicely, given that they had not come from the USA, they were Canadians and not Americans, the Americans do not let people in the USA without ID, and their ID was in the newbie’s office. The newbie refused to believe them, and repeated the command that they must return to the USA.

    Eventually a more senior officer came out to see what the kerfuffle was about, explained the Key to Canada to the newbie, returned my friends’ ID to them, and let them enter Canada despite their never having left it.

  28. #28
    Jesus F'ing Christ Glazer's avatar
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