http://www.siggraph.org/s2011/for_attendees/travel-housing/visas-passports

"US citizens or residents must have a passport to enter Canada and return to the US" - is it common for US citizens to expect to enter other countries without?

What about getting back in? How do they know you aren't an illegal immigrant?

Probably aren't too many illegal immigrants who are white and talk with an American accent.

That said, I guess there are now enough for them to start worrying about it. Hence the change.

Sure US citizens expect to travel to and from Canada freely, with no password. It has been that way for the 50+ years I've been alive. Until recently.

Canada is viewed as part of the United States. They have the same language (well, most of Canada), the same customs, look the same, etc. Aren't they just one of the states?

To leave the US requires a passport as well as the permission of DHS. It has been that way since the bush administration.

There was a poster here who was not permitted to get his passport renewed, and he was not able to find out why. This meant he became a prisoner here inside the US.

I lived in the Ukraine in 1993 and there your city was written in your passport. We got arrested in Yalta and my Ukranian friend was asked by the police what he was doing in a city not his work/live city.

It used to be that you were only permitted to move between cities for a reason, e.g. a vacation or visiting a family member. The US is tending more and more towards Stalinism.

Prior to 2009 there is one called western hemisphere travel initiative, which allows citizens of those countries to enter without passports. The rule applies not just US and Canada. Third world countries such as Jamica is also on the list. It has nothing to do with Canada being part of US whatever.

Of course you still have to prove your citizenship because not all US residents are US citizens. Before 2009, US citizenship can be proven in a number of ways, such as if you are a white with no accent, driving a car with "Jesus save America" plate and your birth certificate. The last means is the most popular type, and there are over 1,000 formats of birth certificates in circulation in America.

Now the agreement is over and passport becomes one of the fews means that support your citizenship claim.

Legally a US citizen can enter US without a passport. US immigration law says that "a US citizen has absolute rights to enter US". However if you attempt to enter without a passport, you may have to stay for a few days until the matter gets sorted out.

US citizens have a Constitutional right to enter the US, whether or not they are in possession of a passport.

> Before 2009, US citizenship can be proven in a number of ways, such as if you are a white with no accent, driving a car with "Jesus save America" plate and your birth certificate.

I never got asked for a birth certificate before, not even a drivers license. When walking across the border I would usually not have any ID at all and usually wouldn't get asked for it. You come across and the US guys say "citizenship and state of birth?" and you say "American, California" or "American, New York", or such and they wave you through because they are trained and can tell if you have a fake accent. Detecting a fake accent is MUCH more secure than checking to see if you have an easily forged document.

Now if you are brown or yellow and don't speak English well then at THAT point they ask to see your drivers license or such. But not if you're a passenger in a car driven by a white american, or one with a perfect accent.

The only time I ran into trouble was when coming back with a friend who was Canadian. They gave him hell and searched him thoroughly in an interrogation room while I waited in the secondary parking area for them to get done. All because they could tell from his accent something was wrong. He actually had dual citizenship, so he was claiming to be american, but they knew he wasn't born here from his speech.

BTW, this is pretty ancient practice because it works fucking awesome. Notice on american TV the australian actors talking with a fake accent never exactly get it right? It always sounds a bit off even with decades of practice, unless they have actually lived her since they were teens at the least like Mel Gibson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth

Hmm, interesting. More subtle than I expected, and probably fairly accurate too.

Did you spot all the English people in 'The Wire'?

Haven't seen it, that's a HBO thing that people pay for right?

Gibson picked up his reasonably good but by no means perfect Oz accent while at a Sydney high school then NIDA having immigrated with his parents at age 12 to avoid the US draft.

We've gone overboard here - even kids will need photo id to fly:

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/no-pic-no-fly-plan-for-airports-20110615-1g3zb.html

Apparently crims have been flying under assumed names and Plod wants his job made simpler.

I hadn't seen that. That is some serious fucking bullshit. Most states you can't get a photo id under 16.

"the committee suggests those unable to provide photo ID produce a signed statutory declaration confirming their identity before boarding"

Oh right, that will solve everything. I'll just sign a statement swearing I am not Osama bin Laden before getting on with my bomb shoes.

Is trollop the new Idiot? That link talks about a *proposal*. It probably won't get up, if only because it would require extra personnel but the government is currently making cuts in this area!

Terrible reporting by the newspaper which talks about "the committee" several times without saying who formed the committee. The chairman does get named eventually but that's not enough.

Thanks for the head's up, lim. Could be just a furphy, however tying this proposal to security upgrades made necessary by a shocking incident on the other side of the planet almost a decade ago had me frothing at the reporter's or his informant's reasoning.

The extra security theatre is to justify vetting all the crims working the docks and air cargo terminals.