New York State`s Enhanced Driver`s License goes into effect today and will allow for travel by land or sea between the United States and Bermuda, the Caribbean, Canada or Mexico.
`The Enhanced Driver License is a major step forward for all New Yorkers who travel in North America and the Caribbean,` said NYS Governor David Paterson. `This new travel document will improve our security and provide a real boost for the economy, especially for those Upstate communities that border Canada. I congratulate the Department of Motor Vehicles for its work in developing and expeditiously making the Enhanced Driver License available to the public.`
New York`s EDL will provide New Yorkers with a lower-cost and more convenient alternative to a U.S. Passport for land and sea border crossings within the Wester Hemisphere. The EDL can be readily obtained by applying at local DMV offices from today.
For most motorists, an eight-year EDL will cost $80, and will be an identity document, a cross border travel document, and a drivers license. The DMV anticipates that it will take approximately two weeks from the date a motorist presents an application and required proofs for an applicant to receive an EDL, the same amount of time it takes to receive a current New York State photo license or non-driver identification document.
The EDL was developed by DMV to meet the requirements of the federal Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative , which is a result of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, requiring all travelers to present a passport or other document that denotes identity and citizenship when entering the U.S. The EDL can be used for land and sea border crossings in Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean.
Beginning June 1, 2009, only a handful of documents will be acceptable for border crossing, and the New York State EDL will be one of them.
