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PASSPORT NOT NEEDED TO ENTER AND LEAVE PUERTO RICO;
NEW STATE DEPARTMENT RULES CAUSE CONFUSION
 The National Institute for
Latino Policy (NiLP) is concerned that travel agents are misinterpreting the new
passport requirements for US citizens traveling to the Caribbean by erroneously
including Puerto Rico as a location requiring a passport for entry and reentry
into the United States. “We have received calls from a number of people
traveling to Puerto Rico telling us that their travel agents have informed them
that they now need passports to travel to and from Puerto Rico,” explained
Angelo Falcón, the Institute’s President, “and we tell them that this is not
true.”
The United States Department of State has just issued their Western Hemisphere
Travel Initiative requiring that by Jan. 1, 2008, travelers to and from the
Caribbean, Bermuda, Panama, Mexico and Canada must have a passport or other
secure, accepted document to enter or re-enter the United States. This
initiative is based on the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of
2004. However, the State Department also points out that:
“The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative will not affect travel between the
United States and its territories. U.S. citizens traveling between the United
States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana
Islands, and American Samoa will continue to be able to use established forms of
identification to board flights and for entry.”
For further information on this Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, see:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2225.html
“There are still many Americans, including, apparently, travel agents, out there
who do not know that Puerto Rico is a part of the United States and that the
people of Puerto Rico are United States citizens,” Falcón stated.
“Misunderstandings like this passport business are, unfortunately, all too
common, and require Puerto Rican businesses, community-based oranizations and
the government of Puerto Rico to correct his bad information within our
community to make sure that our people are not needlessly inconvenienced and pay
unnecessary fees,” he concluded.
The National Institute for Latino Policy is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy
center established in 1982 to address Latino issues.
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