Good News For American Citizens travelling to Canada...

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Good News For American Citizens travelling to Canada...

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/stor...?page=1#comment

Local passport office expected to open later this year

Speedy service pledged on documents needed for international trips

By Phil Fairbanks

Published: February 18, 2010, 8:31 am

The opening of a new passport office in downtown Buffalo later this year is expected to streamline what many travelers view as an inconvenient and time-consuming application process.

The office, located at 111 Genesee St., means local residents no longer will have to travel to New York City or Detroit (or Philly) to acquire a passport in short order.

"Within hours, not days, someone will be able to get access to a passport," said Rep. Chris Lee, R-Clarence.

Lee joined Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, in announcing a location for the new office. The two lawmakers have been working on the bipartisan effort since last year.

Higgins says the office, scheduled to open in late September or early October, will help ease some of the community's anger and frustration in dealing with the federal cross-border regulations that took effect last summer.

The regulations require U.S. citizens entering the country to present a passport, passport card, enhanced New York driver's license or other valid identification.

Here in Western New York, the new rules have proved particularly unpopular because of the tradition of traveling back and forth to Canada with relative ease.

How many calls does Higgins' congressional offices get from constituents looking for help in getting a passport?

"A lot," Higgins said. "A lot of our offices have been inundated with calls for help."

The region also is home to four border crossings that are among the busiest in the country.

One of the reasons is U.S.-Canada trade and the estimated 500,000 jobs it helps support in New York State.

Passport officials said the presence of a local office makes it possible for applicants, especially those traveling in 14 days or less, to get a passport that same day.

Right now, the applications of local residents are sent to another city and processed in two to four weeks, depending on the urgency of the applicant's request.

"This will be faster," said Tyrone Shelton, regional director of the National Passport Center, an arm of the U.S. Department of State.

The new passport office is significant, not just because of its location in Western New York, but also because of its location in the historic buildings that make up the Genesee Gateway development.

"This vote of confidence by the U.S. government ... is a win-win," said Douglas G. Swift, one of the developers of the downtown rehabilitation project.

The passport office is expected to create more than 20 jobs and is being funded, in part, with $700,000 in federal stimulus money.

Higgins and Lee credited Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former New York senator, for getting the new passport office approved by her department.

Another article....

http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/editori...ory/628098.html

Open passport office here

New rules and border-city status reason enough to ease problems

Published: April 03, 2009, 12:30 am

Buffalo is a city where people watch Canadian TV, favor Canadian beer and are big fans of the Canadian national sport. Our link with Fort Erie is the busiest U. S.-Canadian border crossing and our economic future is tightly linked to that of Ontario.

But Buffalo is, oddly enough, not a city where anyone processes passport applications so that people who live hereabouts will be able to easily obtain the documents that soon will be necessary to easily cross the Canadian frontier.

That’s why Reps. Chris Lee, R-Clarence, and Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, are correct to sponsor a bill that would require the State Department—now headed by former New York Sen. Hillary Clinton—to open such an office in Buffalo.

Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, and others are trying to push the passport deadline back until after the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in February, but for now June 1 remains the date set for the beginning of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative—a set of rules that will require more demanding standards of documentation to enter the United States from Canada. From that day on, assuming Congress doesn’t intervene and the electronic infrastructure is up and running, Americans returning from Canada will have to have a passport, passport card, NEXUS card or enhanced driver’s license.

A functioning passport office in Buffalo, the congressmen argue, would make it possible for people who need passports —and a lot of people are going to realize at the last minute that they do need one—potentially to get one in a matter of hours rather than the weeks-long wait it takes to get them by mail.

The closest such offices are now found in New York City and Detroit. It makes perfect sense that there should be one in Buffalo, too, and soon.

Ant

Edited February 19, 2010 by Ant+D+BabyA