The implementation of the rule requiring citizens of the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and Bermuda to present a passport when entering the U.S. by air has been put off.
First scheduled for Jan. 1, 2007, then rescheduled for January 8 in order to facilitate holiday travel, the start of the new rule has now been delayed because the Department of Homeland Security has yet to post the rule in the Federal Register.
According to the U.S. State Department Web site, the passport requirement won’t go into effect until 60 days after it has been published in the Federal Register—which means it won’t be implemented until late January at the earliest.
In a report in the Toronto Star, a DHS spokesperson was quoted as saying the passport rules will be published in the "very, very near future.”
The passport requirement deadline for travel into the United States by land and sea is June 1, 2009, although DHS and the State Department maintain they still aim to fulfill the requirements necessary to meet the original Jan. 1, 2008 deadline.