FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Passport needed for travel to SJU?

Nov 27, 2006 | 4:40 pm

#5

s25843

Join Date: Dec 2002

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Quote:

Originally Posted by peachfront

Since Puerto Rico is part of the United States, then of course you do not need a passport.

I have a question of my own, which is probably even more silly, but I do not quite understand the distinction between "commonwealth" and "state." Puerto Rico makes quite a point of noting that THEY are a commonwealth rather than a state. However, Virginia definitely and I'm pretty sure Pennsylvania also are commonwealths, and yet they are also states just fine, indeed, some of the original states. So what's up with that?

My great home state of MA is also the Commonwealth of Masachusetts

From Wikipedia
Four of the constituent states of the United States officially designate themselves Commonwealths: Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. This designation, which has no constitutional impact, emphasizes that they have a "government based on the common consent of the people" as opposed to one legitimized through their earlier Royal Colony status that was derived from the King of England. (The word commonwealth is of English derivation and refers to the common "weal" or welfare of the public.) In common parlance, people do not make the distinction between state or commonwealth.

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