Air travel re-entries to the United States will require passports as from next January. While the US Congress approved a last minute postponement of the passport rule for land and sea until 1 June 2009, this will not apply to travel to the Caribbean by air. The last-minute revision, which was inserted into a Homeland Security Dept. appropriations bill, only delays the implementation of the requirement for passports for land crossings at the Canadian and Mexican borders and for cruise passengers returning to the US from Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada or Bermuda. The Caribbean Tourism Organization had lobbied for a deadline extension for both air and sea travel.
All US citizens, however, will need passports for travel by air starting on 8 January 2007, as previously proposed under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.
The measure is expected to affect travel to the Caribbean next year, as the majority of US travelers that travel by air to the Caribbean do not have passports. Caribbean countries, the Dominican Republic included, only require an original birth certificate and photo ID for entry.