JimH wrote:
"Chuck Gould" wrote in message
ups.com...
Most people know that beginning next January American boaters
reentering home waters from Canadian waters will be required to produce
a passport at a customs office.


Nice idea on paper...........not in the real world though. How do they plan
on enforcing this?

They have been requiring returning boaters to go through customs since
forever.
They enforce it by putting you in jail if you don't.

Now to be clear, you don't need to report to Customs if you have only
been aboard your boat in Canadian waters and haven't 1)anchored, 2)
gone ashore, or 3) made contact with any other vessel.

In the past, it was common to come back through Customs with nothing
more than a
driver's license to establish your address and your own declaration
that you were a US citizen. In recent years, they tightened that up to
require presentation of evidence
"satisfactory to the customs examiner" that *proves* your citizenship.
Border agents have been hassling Americans returning without passports,
since the only document that a customs examiner has no choice except to
find "satisfactory" is a valid passport.
Most boaters in the Pacific NW travelling into Canadian waters now
carry passports, and the law tightens up to *require* passports
beginning in 2007.

I am 99.9% certain that the same law applies to people arriving by
automobile, train, and cars or buses.