Expert: John Crandall - 10/7/2007

Question
As a US citizen, do I need a valid passport to travel to the US Virgin Islands?

Answer
Hello Sandy...This link will help you with all your document inqueries.

http://www.traveldocs.com/vi/er.htm

If you can't click on the link then copy and paste it to your url address bar. Also...

Travel Tips: More Changes in Passport Rules for 2007 Changes in Passport Rules
    A regulation that would have required air and cruise travelers to have a passport for trips to Canada, Mexico and most Caribbean nations, starting Jan. 8, 2007, will now only apply to fliers.
By AP Editors
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Message Board: Should You Need a Passport to Travel to Canada or Mexico?

The Caribbean tourist industry is reacting sharply to changes in U.S. rules extending the time that American cruise passengers can travel without their passports—but not those who journey by air.

The changes—signed into law Oct. 4 by President Bush—allow U.S. citizens to return from visits to Canada and Mexico, or from cruises throughout the Caribbean, without a passport until June 1, 2009.

But the law maintains that air travelers to those areas must carry a passport starting Jan. 8, 2007.

"It is incomprehensible that the United States government would approve an amendment that excludes air arrivals from the Caribbean," said Vincent Vanderpool Wallace, secretary-general of the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization.

Tourism officials worry that the change will discourage air travel to the Caribbean, while making it easier for cruise passengers.

Cruise travelers tend to spend less money in a single port than a visitor who travels to the country by air.

Prior U.S. travel requirements allowed American citizens to go to Canada, Mexico or most Caribbean countries and re-enter the U.S. using a driver's license and birth certificate.

The new requirements will not affect travel between the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

About 27 percent of Americans have current, valid passports. But the State Department is experiencing unprecedented demand for passports, due in part to this new regulation.

To find out how to get a passport, visit the State Department's travel Web site at http://www.travel.state.gov , or call the U.S. National Passport Information Center at 877-487-2778. To find a post office or other facility near you where passports are processed, type in your zip code at http://www.iafdb.travel.state.gov/ .

Allow six weeks for processing. Fees for getting a new passport total $97, not including the cost of getting passport photos. For children under 16, the fees total $82. Passport renewals are $67. An adult passport is good for 10 years.
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Happy Travels!!

John