Business Connections
A Business Law Update
4.19.2005
Don’t Go to Canada With Just a Driver’s License
Diane Butler
Recent news accounts are forecasting that by 2008 U.S. citizens will need passports for Western
Hemisphere travel, including U.S.-Canada travel. Those same accounts suggest that for the time
being you can travel between Canada and the U.S. by presenting only a driver's license. Advice
about being able to travel internally on nothing more than a driver’s license is inaccurate, and
following this inaccurate advice can result in significant delays and inconvenience.
Currently, U.S. citizens are exempt from passport requirements imposed on citizens of other
countries for U.S.-Canada travel, but the immigration officers, both for Canada and the
U.S., must be satisfied that the person is a U.S. citizen. An immigration officer might accept a
person's word that he or she is a U.S. citizen, and might not even bother to look at the passport a
traveler presents; but officially, travelers are required to present some evidence of U.S.
citizenship and evidence of identity in the form of government-issued identification with a
photograph. A driver's license is not proof of U.S. citizenship, whereas the following is evidence
of citizenship:
•
U.S. passport (including an expired passport)
•
Certificate of birth in the United States, along with a government-issued identity
document, such as a driver's license (young children are exempt from the photo i.d.
requirement)
•
Certificate of naturalization to U.S. citizenship
U.S.-Canada travelers also can apply for frequent traveler programs (such as NEXUS, which is
available for travel across the Canadian border) to avoid having to present a passport every trip.
See http://cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/frequent_traveler/.
Here are other helpful links:
•
For passports http://www.travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html
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“Know Before You Go” information on customs and immigration
http://cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/kbyg/
Diane Butler is a Partner at Lane Powell and heads Lane Powell's immigration practice. Diane
has assisted clients in the following immigration areas: non-immigrant visas; extensions and
change or adjustment of status; employment-based immigrant ("Green Card") visas; I-9 issues
and employer sanctions; Department of Labor litigation; political asylum claims; consular
processing; and Special Registration, and also has represented clients in Congress on
immigration issues. She can be reached at butlerd@lanepowell.com or 206-223-7715.
For more information on these or other business issues, please contact our Business Lawyers at
Lane Powell PC:
(206) 223-7000 Seattle
(503) 778-2100 Portland
businesslaw@lanepowell.com
www.lanepowell.com
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