passport card ??

[stackenem]

Has anybody heard if these are out yet?? I put in for the email notification but haven't heard anything back yet.

[dmills4124]

  We have our passport but would love to have the ease of the card. Did someone say it was $20 or $40 compared to the higher passport fees? what if you already have a pssport and want the card?
  Need input, as Johnny 5 would say.
thanks for the help to anyone!
don and kim m

[djkimmel]

I thought it was around $50 or $60, but my memory definitely leaves something to be desired. I heard from some source this week that availability was still one to two months away at best.

[VinceR]

The State Dept. is taking applications for the card, now. The problem is that the cards aren't ready to be issued yet. It appears that they are still working on the layout of the card. The card is supposed to have a feature that will permit it to be scanned for information, but make it difficult to counterfeit. They are saying that they will be ready, sometime later this year.

The cost will be $45.00 for first time applicants (that do not already have a regular passport). If you already have a valid passport, the cost is $20.00 (or $25.00). The catch is you also have to pay a processing fee to the agency that you process your passport application through (post office, county clerks office, etc., which is normal), and I believe it's about $20.00.

You can save the processing fee (if you have a passport), but you have to mail in your passport to the State Dept., along with an application that is available through the "official" website. The link, below, takes you to the State Dept. website where the process is explained, and you can find additional links to the online applications that are required.

The Immigration Support website that you could sign up for notification through, is not affiliated with the State Dept. It is only a processing service that charges something like $45.00 to process your application. Don't use this for anything other than notification.
   
Here is the link to the official State Dept. website:
http://travel.state.gov/passport/ppt_card/ppt_card_3926.html

By the way, the WHTI program will not take effect until June, of 2009. There is now, additional information that says that fishermen/women who only travel into Canadian waters for the purpose of fishing (and do not leave the boat or land on Canadian soil) are not subject to the WHTI regs., and are not required to report to Customs. See here:

http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1206635771151.shtm

I believe that I heard that a clear translation of the new laws are being worked on. Hopefully we will have some clarification by the time the WHTI takes full effect.