Exemption from new U.S. passport rules will expire October 1

Those new federal rules requiring U.S. citizens to have a passport for all Western Hemisphere air travel – originally intended to take effect January 1, 2007 – will finally come into force on October 1. The so-called Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) passed by Congress had set a January 1 start for the new requirements, but the State Department’s Passport Office was so overwhelmed by applications that the government decided to delay full implementation for several months. The U.S. had been allowing travelers to show proof that they had applied for a passport in lieu of the actual document, but that exception ends at midnight September 30. “Effective October 1, U.S. citizens traveling by air to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda must present a passport or other WHTI-compliant documentation to enter or depart from the United States,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement last week.