Canadian and Mexican Border-Crossing Cards
Posted Oct 19, 2001

The INS has announced that the new, fraud-resistant, Mexican border-crossing card (BCC) became available October 1, 2001 and the previous version of the card is no longer applicable. The old Canadian BCCs are also no longer valid as of October 1, 2001, but the new version is apparently not yet available. The new card, incorporating biometric identification technology, is a requirement of section 104 of the 1996 Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRAIRA).

Canadian BCC  As many readers of the MurthyBulletin and MurthyDotCom are aware, Canadian citizens are not required to have visas, and neither are residents of Canada who "share a common nationality with" Canadians or with British subjects. Persons sharing a common nationality are citizens of commonwealth countries, plus Ireland.

Commonwealth countries include Antigua, Australia, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, Dominica, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Kingdom (including territories, dependencies, and colonies, e.g. Bermuda), Vanuatu, Western Samoa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Residents of Canada who are citizens of countries other than the above would need a visa to enter the U.S. In the past many such persons used BCCs when visiting the U.S. Those BCCs are now invalid. It is now necessary to obtain a visa from a U.S. consulate and travel with one's passport. People who previously used BCCs and were granted multiple-entry waivers of inadmissibility indicated on their BCCs can still use the card for the purpose of proving approval of the waiver. But the card itself is no longer functional, so a visa must be obtained. When the new version of the card becomes available, INS will make another announcement.

Mexican BCC  As of October 1, 2001, the old Mexican BCC became invalid and the new version of the card was made available. Holders of the old cards are required to turn them in and obtain the new DSP-150, a machine-readable, biometric card.

U.S. consular offices accepting applications for the DSP-150 are located in Mexico City, Ciudad Juarez, Guadalajara, Hermosillo, Merida, Matamoros, Monterrey, Nogales, Nuevo Laredo, Tijuana, and at the Tijuana and the Mexicali Temporary Processing Facilities. To schedule an appointment, INS has announced a special telephone number for calling within Mexico. The applicant's photo is taken and the information sent to INS electronically. INS sends the card to the consulate which will then forward it to the applicant. If one has been approved for the new BCC but does not yet have the card, it is possible to come to the U.S. on a temporary waiver. In this case, an approval sticker is placed on the person's old BCC, and the old BCC is clipped.

Since October 1, 2001 it became necessary for a Mexican traveler to have ONE of the following for admission to the United States:

(a) the new DSP 150;

(b) the old, clipped, card with approval sticker attached, to qualify for the above-mentioned temporary waiver;

(c) A valid B-1/B-2 visa and a pre-1998 BCC (issued by the U.S. Department of State), with passport; or

(d) A passport with valid visa.