Nationwide effort brings passport fair to campus
By: Sara Irvin, Staff Writer
Issue date: 4/3/09 Section: News
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"The Department of State wants everyone in the United States, its citizens, to get passports," said Meghan Pace, the International Student Services Counselor. "They're doing a lot of promotions and [trying] different ideas… to get people to get passports."
According to the Department of State's Web site, the campaign is an effort to educate people on the upcoming changes to U.S. document requirements for international travel.
"Starting on June 1 this year, it's going to be mandatory for any international traveler to have a passport, or you have to have a passport card for travel into Mexico, Canada or the Caribbean by land or sea only," Pace said. "You can no longer cross the border with a birth certificate, basically."
The normal working hours of the Passport Office, located in Room 101/102 of the Rassman Building, are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to noon on Friday.
"This Saturday thing is kind of special," Pace said. "We wouldn't normally do this, but if [the Department of State] decides to have more of these special passport events, we would advertise to make sure the community knows they could come over here as well as the San Angelo Post Office."
San Angelo resident Linda Dowd visited the Passport Office Saturday afternoon after hearing about the event on local Christian radio station KCRN.
"The one [passport] I have is expired, and I'm getting a new one," Dowd said. " It's (traveling) just one of those things… if you want to go into Mexico or go into Canada you have to have it, so might as well get it and be prepared."
Documents required for applying for a passport are a valid state-issued driver license or identification card and birth certificate or other certificate of citizenship.
By 3 p.m. Saturday, the Passport Office had 16 applications.
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