New US Passport Rules
 

Hello,

I have a friend that is from Italy and wants to go to Puerto Rico for a weekend soon. She's currently getting her visa status renewed (from student to worker) so she can't leave the USA until the process is complete. Are the laws in place yet where one has to show a valid passport between PR/USVI to get back into the US Mainland?

I looked on travel.state.gov but that only talks about US Citizens and the new passport laws.


Thanks.

Puerto Rico is US territory and you do not need a passport to go there. It is a domestic US trip. No personal experience with USVI but I guess they might be the same

Should be the same as Puerto Rico - no passport should be needed.

USVI is weird. You don't NEED a passport but they have asked me for it every time I've gone (actually, mostly upon leaving). It leaves me very :confused:

Even flying domestically within the USA, one still generally needs some sort of acceptable photo ID to make it through security. Technically, if you refuse to show ID you'll just be subject to additional screening but there have been incidents where people have been denied boarding.

Yeah well probably because you can easily move between US and British territory (ie islands). I know as a Visa Holder (non-immigrant alien) in the US I had to bring my (foreign) passport and (US)visa when going to the USVI - mainly I think for travelling back to the mainland.

Thanks, but this isn't really relevent to the discussion. We're talking about needing proof of citizenship (not just ID) to come back from USVI->mainland.

Everytime I've come back from the USVI, I've had to clear customs at the airport in STT - so I expect a Passport would be required.

Puerto Rico, however, shouldn't require a passport.

Right. Me too. But I don't get it! Under what law is this required???

I'm guess for the USVI, its all considered a duty free port, so you need to clear customs, but not immigration?

This would seem to indicate that while US citizens don't require a passport for travel between the 50 states and Puerto Rico, a foreigner would:

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html

DK about USVI, but to/from PR there is no immigration control, only the usual TSA photo ID required.

Yes, me too. But that was because I was transfering from another island (AXA-STT-MIA-PHL or EIS-SJU-ORD-LGA) which was NOT a US Territory. My question is, if the flights are:
EWR-SJU-EWR or EWR-SJU-STT-SJU-EWR would she need a passport (proof of citizenship)? I know she'll need ID (her Mass drivers license will take care of that) but we want to know if she'll need to bring her passport/visa? Because if that's the case, then why wouldn't I (being a born and bred US citizen) need to show such docs?

This immigration stuff is fuzzy.

DJ.