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DEBORAH A. MILESPEF members who plan to travel across the Canadian border, such as delegates attending the 31st Annual PEF Convention in Niagara Falls in September, may want to apply for an enhanced driver’s license (EDL).
The state Department of Motor Vehicles began issuing the EDL in September 2008 as a lower-cost and more convenient alternative to a U.S. passport for land and sea crossings within the Western Hemisphere. Gov. David Paterson touted the EDL as “a new travel document to improve our security and provide a real boost for the economy, especially for upstate communities that border Canada.”
The fee for an EDL is $30 in addition to any fees required for your driver’s license or non-driver photo-ID-card transaction. In comparison, the cost for a U.S. passport is more than $100. It takes approximately two weeks from the date your application is processed to receive your EDL in the mail.
The EDL allows a U.S. citizen who is a New York state resident to travel by land and sea between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Carribean without a U.S. passport.
Currently, domestic air travel in the U.S. requires a regular driver’s license or non-driver photo ID card – all acceptable as proof of identity to board a domestic flight. However, this is subject to change based on federal laws and regulations.
An EDL is valid for a maximum of eight years, the same amount of time as a current NYS driver’s license.
To obtain an EDL, you must apply at the DMV and provide proof of identity, NYS residency and U.S. citizenship.
The new wallet-size card includes a U.S. flag image and the word “enhanced” on the front with a machine readable zone that uses optical character recognition text on the reverse. It also has a radio frequency identification tag to speed border crossings.
