FAQ / I'll be traveling to Canada by car this summer and don't know if I need a passport or not. Do I? I know they've changed some travel rules. If I don't need a passport, what sort of ID will do?

A passport would do that. But so would a certified copy of your birth certificate. If you’re a naturalized U.S. citizen and don’t have a passport, you should travel with your naturalization certificate.

Your current driver’s license wouldn’t prove your citizenship, but it could serve as a required photo ID if you were using a birth certificate as documentation.

You can’t use your voter’s registration card or your Social Security card as proof of your citizenship, either.

Note: You wouldn’t need a visa.

That’s what would be required to get you into Canada. To return to this country by car, you’d need just some sort of ID, though the better it was, the quicker you’d probably be on your way. A passport is ideal, followed by a certified copy of your birth certificate along with a government-issued photo ID. And since you’ll need one or the other to get into Canada in the first place, you should be all set.

No, that’s not nearly as tough as you may have heard. The United States is indeed requiring passports of some U.S. citizens who re-enter this country after traveling to Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean. But so far those rules apply only to people traveling by air.

Rules for land and sea travelers haven’t changed — but they’re expected to next year, according to a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

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