Long passport lineups rile Voice Reporter

by Actual News Geezer | March 20, 2007 at 06:00 am

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We received this Voice Report from Thomas Christina - he complains about the long waiting lines at a Federal building somewhere in the US.

Listen to his report by click on the Audio link to the right.

Line ups are not just an American phenomenon - changes in US laws in response to terrorism now require travelers coming to and from the US now require passports from places that had been exempted.

Including Canada, which used to boast it shared the longest undefended border with its neighbour to the south. Not any longer. Just another way in which security concerns are fencing in people all over the world.

The nationwide backlog results in part from a surge in applications due to new requirements for air travel, a State Department spokeswoman said.

As of Jan. 23, passports are required for travel from the United States to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and other Western Hemisphere countries, spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus said by telephone from Washington, D.C.

Some 1.1 million applications were received nationwide in November, up from 648,000 in November 2005, she said.