US temporarily relaxes new passport requirments

[MissB]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19107675/

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Friday suspended some of its new, post-Sept. 11 requirements for traveling abroad, hoping to placate Congress and irate summer travelers whose vacations have been thwarted by delays in processing their passports.

The proposal would temporarily lift a requirement that U.S. passports be used for citizens flying to and from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda.

The suspension should allow the State Department to catch up with a massive surge in applications that has overwhelmed passport processing centers since the rule took effect this year. The resulting backlog has caused up to three-month delays for passports and ruined or delayed the travel plans of thousands of Americans.

Until the end of September, travelers will be allowed to fly without a passport if they present a State Department receipt, showing they had applied for a passport, and government-issued identification, such as a driver’s license

[helderheid]

1. Are the ones they issue now using the RFID chips?

[annabanana]

2. That would sure slow things up, wouldn't it. I wonder who got

the contract for the new technology?

[helderheid]

3. My husband needs one but I was hoping they hadn't started with the chips - I fear we're too late.