gfunkdave

Yeah, I thought an actual passport (or passport card) became the hard requirement a couple years ago. Interesting.

GUWonder

I go by road -- in my cars, relatives' cars or rental cars. Not by rail.

I cross the US-Canada border with my non-enhanced US state driving license and US birth certificate multiple times a year. It works just fine for Canada.

GUWonder

Not for road trips in private vehicles at least. I find it amusing when my northern border-area-residing relatives warn me to carry my passport or passport card, but I don't and go from the US to Canada and back without a show-stopper. And what delay there is tends to be more on the US side than the Canadian side for me as a US citizen doing this without a passport/passport card (even as I have both).

This, by the way, is what US citizens denied a US passport do have to do when visiting Canada. Oh the things we learn when seeing what happened after the implementation of passport denial/revocation for large numbers of US child support debtors. After 1997 and after 2010, this is what they have to rely upon doing and this indicates what they use to do so: http://www.cbsa.gc.ca/publications/p...-eng.html#s1x1

As long as I have evidence of being re-admissible to the US and have the means to return to the US to present, Canada accepts my certified copy US state birth certificate and regular US state driving license when I drive across. It would probably work even to walk across but I haven't done that in years.

Maybe one of these days Canada will change its laws for admitting US citizens, but you can bet that the current Canadian PM is a bit more open to being more like his dad than being like the Canadian PM replaced this year. And I like his national defence minister, as a good looking guy with the turban. Now only if his American near and dear ones understood they can still go by road to Canada without a passport/passport card.

PTravel

It was quite a discussion. I explained the situation, and the person I spoke with told me to go to a passport office on Monday. I repeated that I had to be in Canada by 8:30 am on Monday. She said there was nothing I could do. I said that I found it hard to believe that there was no procedure available for an American citizen to get a passport renewed when there were exigent circumstances. She said, there is not. After going around in circles a few times, I gave up.

GUWonder

In the US, after business hours? Not going to happen unless you get some major, extracurricular help from levels way above those answering a phone. Even for the need to visit a dying child or parent abroad, odds are it just won't happen in the US. You would perhaps have better luck with a US embassy/consulate abroad, but business travel need isn't commonly going to get staff to come in to issue a limited validity "emergency" passport there either. It's sort of amusing how some Americans would perhaps have better chances to get an emergency US passport on a weekend outside of the US than in the US.

Have you decided to fly up to a northern city close to the US-Canada border and then rent a car to go across and back with your driving license and an original or certified copy of your US birth certificate? Once in Canada that way, you can then even fly between Candian cities without issue using just a US driving license, if you were so interested.

PTravel

I'm not going. I'm going to have to handle this matter by telephone.

Kagehitokiri

there are expeditors who can do it in some cities, might be able to get you one today

GUWonder, good posts as always

sbm12

The expeditors cannot do anything if the passport offices are closed.

BigFlyer

It should work for rail as well - the CBSA quote I posted applies to all entries to Canada.

I haven't done a rail crossing in years - so I don't know if the ticket collectors/conductors on the train do a passport check and refuse passage if you can't show a passport.

GUWonder

Commercial and other carriers providing contracted transport service can have travel documentation-related concerns and requirements that are more restrictive than what the receiving country accepts. I don't know if the rail operators have more restrictive travel doc requirements than what Canada generally accepts, but some air carriers have applied more restrictive travel doc requirements than the receiving country requires. These more restricted requirements can be a product of: transport providers wanting to have matters be rather more simple so as to reduce the chances of fines for transporting inadmissible persons; the requirements of the country whose flag the transport operator has; the requirements of countries being departed/transited; and/or operator agent's ignorance/incompetence.

When I fly into YVR, my US passport card and driving license have been refused by CBSA even as it works for coming into Canada by road/rail/ferry. Sort of amusing since the birth certificate and driving license is still accepted by CBSA for admissibility purposes. I'm not sure if my type of experience conveyed in the first sentence is or is not a product of improperly-informed, relatively young CBSA employees.

BigFlyer

If rationality had anything to do with it they would accept expired passports. And, the US and Canada should accept passport cards as well.

I assume the fact that the CBSA refuses passport cards at the airports while accepting drivers license with birth certificate is a bureaucratic enforcement of the US rule that passport cards are not valid for air travel. Given that the issuing agency has that rule, they are honoring the restriction of the agency that issued the document. There is no "rule" that birth certificates and drivers licenses are invalid for air travel.

The airlines requiring a passport to fly to Canada when Canada does not require a passport is not the airlines being more stringent than the law requires. They are enforcing US law which requires a passport to leave the US.

GUWonder

There is a reason I mentioned: "the requirements of countries being departed/transited". But even that alone doesn't cover some having/having had more restricted travel doc requirements than the receiving government requires. For example, some carriers accept NEXUS cards while at least one other carrier has not -- despite US-Canada legal agreements allowing US citizens to fly to Canada without a passport as long as carrying a valid NEXUS card. NEXUS is WHTI-compliant.

Even if the issuing authority of a proof of citizenship claims that it's not valid for certain means of travel, it may still be accepted as proof of citizenship.

TravelerMSY

Perhaps he can charter a jet? Assuming the APIS list will even allow adding a passenger that doesn't have a valid passport.

And I don't think being outside the US would make this any easier. The US consulates still keep business hours worldwide and generally don't work weekends.

GUWonder

Better deal on average to fly commercial, scheduled carrier to an airport within short-driving distance of Canada and take a car to/from Canada by road.

In the past several years, I have seen general citizen type US passports issued at US embassies/consulates over closed Sundays in Europe, South Asia, East Asia and Latin America when there were no regular business hours. I've not yet seen a Sunday passport issuance date for any such thing from a scheduled closed US passport agency over the same period of time. NPC has been another story.