On Sept. 30, a temporary rule is set to expire that permitted travelers who had applied for but did not yet receive U.S. passports to proceed with trips to countries within the Western Hemisphere, so long as they had a government-issued photo ID and proof that their passport applications were pending.

Under the Western Hemisphere Travel Imitative, a law enacted last January, all airline passengers are required to present a valid passport in order to enter and depart from the U.S.

However, the law, which will be extended next year to land borders and seaports, spurred millions of travelers to apply for passports.

The "unprecedented" influx of passport applications inundated the State Dept., which was unable to process passports fast enough to keep up with demand.


With tens of thousands of passport applications still unprocessed, the DHS in June issued the temporary rule to allow air passengers to proceed with their summer travel plans.