US Passport Card

U.S. citizens may begin applying in advance for the new U.S. Passport Card
beginning February 1, 2008, in anticipation of land border travel document
requirements. We expect cards will be available and mailed to applicants in
spring 2008.

The passport card will facilitate entry and expedite document processing at U.S.
land and sea ports-of-entry when arriving from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean
and Bermuda. The card may not be used to travel by air. It will otherwise
carry the rights and privileges of the U.S. passport book and will be adjudicated
to the exact same standards.

The Department of State is issuing this passport card in response to the needs of
border resident communities for a less expensive and more portable alternative
to the traditional passport book. The card will have the same validity period as
a passport book: 10 years for an adult, five for children 15 and younger. For
adults who already have a passport book, they may apply for the card as a
passport renewal and pay only $20. First-time applicants will pay $45 for adult
cards and $35 for children.

To facilitate the frequent travel of U.S. citizens living in border communities
and to meet DHS’s operational needs at land borders, the passport card will
contain a vicinity-read radio frequency identification (RFID) chip. This chip
will link the card to a stored record in secure government databases. There will
be no personal information written to the RFID chip itself.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT APPLYING FOR A U.S.
PASSPORT CARD OR PASSPORT, PLEASE VISIT:
TRAVEL.STATE.GOV
Front
Back
U.S.PASSPORT CARD
APPLICATIONS ACCEPTED
BEGINNING FEBRUARY 1


QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Why a Passport Card?
The Department of State has developed a Passport Card as a more portable and less
expensive alternative to the traditional passport book. The passport card is a basic
component of the PASS (People Access Security Service) system announced by
Secretaries Rice and Chertoff in January 2006, and will meet the specific requirements of
the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) to secure and expedite travel. WHTI is
the Administration’s plan to implement a provision of the Intelligence Reform Terrorism
Prevention Act of 2004, which requires citizens of the United States, Canada, and
Bermuda to have a passport or other designated document that establishes the bearer’s
identity and nationality to enter or re-enter the United States from Mexico, Canada, and
the Caribbean. According to the Department of Homeland Security, other documents such
as registered traveler cards (NEXUS, SENTRI and FAST cards) will be acceptable under
WHTI.

How did the Department decide on the cost of the Passport Card?
Consular Fees reflect the cost of providing passport services to the American public.
Per regulation, the Department of State employs an independent consultant to
conduct periodic and regular cost of service studies to determine the cost of
providing consular services. The cost of service study indicated that the Department
could issue a card for $20 for an adult and $10 for a child. With the execution fee of
$25, the total cost for an adult is $45, or 37.5 cents per month over a ten year period.

Why is there an execution fee?
First time applicants, minors and those seeking to replace a lost or stolen passport
must appear in person before a person authorized by the Secretary of State to give
oaths to verify their passport applications. In order to offer American citizens
convenient locations to apply for a passport, the Department of State authorizes
Passport Acceptance Agents to accept passport applications on its behalf. American
citizens can apply at more than 9,000 passport acceptance facilities, most of them
with the U.S. Postal Service. Other government facilities include many state, county,
township, and municipal offices as well public libraries and public universities. The
execution fee is to reimburse the acceptance facility for the cost of the service, which
provides an incentive for them to act on behalf of the Department of State. The
current cost of the execution fee per application will be reduced to $25 beginning
February 1, 2008. The execution fee applies to first-time applicants, children and
replacements for lost or stolen passports. Since the execution fee does not apply to
applications for renewals, adult passport holders will pay only $20 for the card. You
can locate the acceptance facility nearest you at: travel.state.gov.

Why can’t I use the passport card to fly to Canada and Mexico?
The passport card is designed for the specific needs of border resident communities
and is not a globally interoperable travel document as is the traditional passport
book. The passport book is the appropriate travel document for most international
travel.

How secure is the card?
Because the wallet-sized Passport Card does not offer as many opportunities to
embed security features as a passport book, the Department has decided to use laser
engraving and will include state-of-the-art security features to mitigate against the
possibility of counterfeiting and forgery. We are taking every care to ensure that this
Passport Card is as secure as current technology permits. There will be no personal
information written to the RFID chip.

What is RFID Technology?
Radio Frequency Identification technology (RFID) has been used successfully along
our land borders with Canada and Mexico since 1995 in the Department of
Homeland Security’s trusted traveler programs, such as NEXUS, SENTRI and FAST.
U.S. border officials are able to expedite legitimate cross-border travel and trade of
those trusted travelers who carry membership cards with vicinity read RFID chips
that link to government databases. Membership in these programs currently exceeds
400,000.

RFID technology has been commercially available in one form or another since the
1970s. It can be found in car keys, highway toll tags, bank cards and security access
cards. The Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) officers, who staff the ports of entry, anticipate that the speed of vicinity RFID
will allow CBP officers, in advance of the traveler’s arrival at the inspection booth,
to quickly access information on the traveler from secure government databases, and
allow for automated terrorist watch list checks without impeding traffic flow. In
addition, they foresee that multiple cards can be read at a distance and
simultaneously, allowing an entire car of people to be processed at once.

The RFID technology embedded in documents will not include any personally
identifying information; only a unique number that can be associated with a record
stored in a secure government database will be transmitted.

Has the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) certified the Card
Architecture as required by law?
As required by legislation (Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2007, Sect.
546), NIST has reviewed the card architecture of the proposed passport card to be
developed by the Department of State in response to the Western Hemisphere Travel
Initiative (WHTI). On May 1, 2007, NIST informed the Departments of State and
Homeland Security (DHS) that the proposed card architecture meets or exceeds the
relevant international security standards and best practices for the technology that
will be included in the card. To accommodate the Department of Homeland
Security’s operational needs at the ports of entry, the Department of State passport
card will include Generation 2 RFID vicinity read technology. NIST notified
Congress on May 3, 2007, that it had certified the security of the card architecture.

Is there a threat from skimming personal information or tracking American
citizens?
The RFID technology used in the passport card will enable the card to be read at a
distance by an authorized CBP reader mounted alongside the traffic lane. The chip
contains no biographic data as is the case with the e-passport. The chip will have a
unique number linking the card to a secure database maintained by DHS and State.
However, to address concerns that passport card bearers can by tracked by this
technology, we are requiring that the vendor provide a sleeve that will prevent the
card from being read while inside it.

Passport Card Layout
The Passport Card is formatted according to specifications for TD-1 size travel documents, as
described in ICAO Document 9303, Part 3, Volume 1. The card contains both eye readable and
machine readable information. For machine reading, information corresponding