On 11/02/11 9:31 AM, James Hare wrote:
Yep. Generally speaking, it is easiest for Canadians (i.e. bearers of Canadian passports) to enter the United States. The only thing easier is if you're a U.S. citizen or permanent resident returning to the U.S. It's a more relaxed system because people in border communities (for example: Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario) tend to cross the border frequently. Migration between the U.S. and Canada is governed by the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which allows several different kinds of documentation instead of a passport: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Travel_Initiative. For what it's worth, though, it isn't like the old days where a birth certificate or voter registration would have been enough.
Technically a US citizen visiting Canada still needs a passport to re-enter the US. Proving one is a US citizen could be difficult otherwise. I can't say how much this has really been a problem on the practical level.
Ray