yomexicoNEWS

WASHINGTON — New anti-terrorism rules soon will require American children under the age of 16 to obtain $82 U.S. passports to return home by air or sea from visits to Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean.

The children are among the estimated 22 million U.S. travelers to neighboring nations each year who will be required for the first time to present U.S. passports to U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency agents upon returning to the United States.

The passport requirement — which takes effect Jan. 8 for travelers returning from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean by air or sea — will affect an estimated 557,000 children under the age of 16, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency.

All U.S. citizens returning from Canada and Mexico by road will be required to present passports beginning Jan. 1, 2008.

Passports for adults cost $97 and are good for 10 years. Passports for children younger than age 16 cost $82 and are good for five years.

Frank Moss, the State Department's top passport official, says the requirement is expected to boost annual demand for passports from 12 million this year to 17 million by 2008.

Parents face a complicated process obtaining passports for their children because of precautions taken to prevent separated or divorced parents from obtaining a U.S. passport to sneak children out of the United States without the consent of the other parent.

The new passport requirement has encountered resistance from the travel industry, including the cruise ship industry, as well as some members of Congress from border states.

Jarrod Agen, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the Bush administration has responded to concerns raised by the winter cruise ship industry by delaying implementation of the passport requirement at seaports beyond the New Year's holiday season. The deadline was moved back by one week to Jan. 8, 2007.

"We've worked throughout the implementation process to accommodate holiday travel to avoid any negative impact on tourism," Agen said.

Laura Tischler, spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, which handles passport issues, said the Bush administration is working to respond to concerns raised by border-state lawmakers about the costs and inconvenience of obtaining passports.

A family of four that currently crosses U.S. land borders with Canada and Mexico with only drivers' licenses or birth certificates might be required to spend at least $358 for four passports, plus the estimated $44 cost for required photographs.

Tischler said the Bush administration is on the verge of proposing a credit-card size "Pass-card" that travelers could use instead of U.S. passports to cross U.S. land borders from Canada and Mexico.

The card, designed to cost less than $50 compared with the $97 cost of an adult passport, would be phased in over the next year in time to meet the 2008 deadline for U.S. passports for land travelers from Canada and Mexico, Tischler said.