politics

State Department officials temporarily relaxed a passport requirement Friday for U.S. citizens flying to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, saving vacation plans for thousands of nervous travelers.

Until Sept. 30, travelers can use a government-issued identification, such as a driver's license, and proof of application for a passport to fly to those locations.

But an even bigger problem is looming if federal officials impose a passport requirement for land travel across Mexican and Canadian borders that could take effect in January, say Minnesota's two U.S. senators.

The offices of Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Amy Klobuchar each received more than 1,000 calls for help getting late passports this year before the State Department eased the flight-passport requirement Friday.

Matthew Zeidler, who is getting married today, had errands to run and a lot of things on his mind during the past week.

But his top job was trying to save a honeymoon trip to Cancun jeopardized by tardy processing of his passport application.

"This past week, it wasn't too pleasant, not when you're spending 12 hours a day on the phone checking on the status of your passport," he said.

Some timely help from Klobuchar's staff got Zeidler's passport approved Friday, just as thousands of other nervous travelers got the good news that the State Department temporarily relaxed the new requirement.

"We say in our office that we've been saving Minnesotans' vacations one passport at a time," Klobuchar said Friday.

Land crossings

However, Coleman, Klobuchar and people in the northern Minnesota tourist business are worried that more travel problems loom if plans go forward requiring U.S. citizens to have passports to drive across the Canadian border.

Both senators want State Department officials to delay requiring passports for land border crossings, which could start in January.

Coleman spokesman Luke Friedrich said State Department officials are expecting twice as many passport applications with the land-border requirement as with the rule regarding flights.

Coleman issued a statement saying that lifting the passport requirement for flights "will mean little in the long term if we do not take the lessons learned and ensure that the government is fully capable of handling the influx of [passport] applications for land and sea travel in the future."

Kallie Briggs, president of the International Falls Area Chamber of Commerce, said that businesses in her area that rely on the cross-border tourist trade are worried about the land travel passport rule.

"There's going to have to be a real marketing effort about the requirements," she said. "We have people from all over the U.S. driving and flying here for vacations. What are they going to do when they get here and find out they need a passport but don't have one?"

Andrea Wallace, retail manager at Hobbit Travel in Minneapolis, said her agency received lots of panicked calls from clients waiting for passports to meet the flight rule, but had only a handful whose travel plans were ruined by processing delays.

She said, however, that "we were extremely proactive in telling people about the requirement. Our invoices, brochures, and our telephone recordings before clients could get an agent went over the [passport] rules."