Cruising- You need a passport now.
 

**Reminder** as of 1-1-06 , you will need a passport
to cruise!
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Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC
June 2, 2005
Improved Passport Application Form Available Online
The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Consular
Affairs has introduced a new online passport
application form procedure. This new process will
promote faster passport processing and reduce data
entry errors by eliminating the need to manually enter
data from handwritten passport applications.
Under the online form process, applicants for U.S.
passports will no longer have to handwrite personal
data to fill out a passport application form. Instead,
the applicant may electronically enter his or her
personal information securely online and then print
the finished form. The electronic entry system allows
for the generation of a 2D barcode on the printed
form. This 2D barcode is read by machine during the
adjudication process and reproduces the information
electronically entered by the applicant. In order to
ensure the privacy of data, the Department of State
does not retain the data provided by applicants using
this process. Once the application form is printed,
the data provided to generate that form is
automatically deleted.

The online form may be accessed at
<http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html>
Blank passport application forms may also be
downloaded from that website.
Completed passport application forms and accompanying
documents may be submitted at any of the 6,000
passport application acceptance facilities around the
United States or at a U.S. embassy or consulate
abroad.
Last year, over 8.8 million U.S. passports were issued
to U.S. citizens. It is expected that the Department
of State will issue over 10 million U.S. passports
this year.

thank you for posting this!
 

Most people don't keep up to date.

There are rumours abroad that the deadlines for all destinations have been put back to 1 January 2008. (Originally, it was to be phased; 1 January 2006 was to be the Caribbean.) The sources are said to be the State Department website and Cruisemates news.

I don't myself read those pages as confirmation yet of this, because the official language continues to contain these words:- But I offer this for completeness' sake,

At this point in time the requierment to have a passport to travel to the Caribbean and South America still stands as January 1, 2006. There has been some push to move it to January 1, 2007 when it is requiered for Mexico and Canada. The original rule is that a passport would be needed for ANY foreign travel by January 1, 2008. With a phased in approach. However there has been a push from the Caribbean to keep it on a level playing field.

If you are planning on cruising in the Caribbean anytime after mid December I would suggest getting a passport now. The rules may change but if they don't make a decision soon you could be too late to get a passport without paying the extra fees to expidite.

We got passports earlier this summer in anticipation of a Caribbean cruise we are doing in January. The cruise line is requiring passport numbers.

We applied at the end of June at a local post office, and got our passports the end of July, about two weeks earlier than we had been promised.

There was a link somewhere, which I can't find now, which itemized which Post Offices will take your picture for you. This saved us some time and I think may have been a little cheaper too.

It's always a good idea to have the passport anyway, because it makes life easier for the immigration/border security wherever you go and speeds you through.

I always take my passport and present it, even when it's not required, and I'm never held up at all.

BTW, here's a tip someone gave me recently; scan your passport bio page and keep it online in a webmail account or some such. If you lose your passport overseas or get in a fix, you only have to go to a cybecafe and forward the email with the attached scan to the cosular officer to expedite your solution.

What a great idea ^