Enhanced drivers' licenses available (NYS)

ALBANY -- Starting Tuesday, New Yorkers will be able to purchase enhanced drivers' licenses that may also be used for land or sea travel between the United States and Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.


The new licenses come after years of wrangling over how to secure the nation's borders after the 9/11 attacks, as well as ease traffic at the crossings.

New York, in an agreement reached last year with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, will become the second state, after Washington, to offer the enhanced licenses as part of the federal Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative.

The licenses, which will include a photo and computer chip to electronically identify the cardholder at the border, will be sold at state and county Department of Motor Vehicles offices on Tuesday.

They are available only to U.S. citizens who are New York residents.

The cost will be $80, which is $30 more than current licenses. But for people with current licenses, the cost will be prorated by how many years are left until the license expires. The enhanced licenses, as with current drivers' licenses, are valid for eight years.

In June, the federal government will require U.S. citizens entering the country to present an enhanced license, a federal passport card or a U.S. passport.

The new license cannot serve as identification for international air flights. So after June 1, U.S. travelers would need passports to fly to Jamaica, for example, but could use an enhanced drivers' license if they took a cruise out of Miami that stopped in Jamaica.

The state over time expects that at least 16 percent of New York drivers, or more than 1 million people, will replace their current drivers' licenses with enhanced ones.

The state has spent months preparing for the rollout of the new licenses. Each DMV office has been equipped with new technology that can authenticate an applicant's citizenship and residency documents.

"We're looking forward to Tuesday and hopefully this will help the public," said Tompkins County Clerk Aurora Valenti.

Some clerks expressed concern about not being able to keep up with the demand for the new licenses. Saratoga County Clerk Kathy Marchione said her office estimates it will take 15 minutes or more to complete just one application.

The state estimates the licenses will bring in about $60 million in revenue for state and local entities. Counties will receive $9 on every enhanced license sold, or nearly 30 percent of the revenue.

And the enhanced licenses are generally accepted as an improvement over the current system, in which travelers must typically show a driver's license and a birth certificate to reenter the U.S. from neighboring countries.

**********************************************

This feels so creepy & Big Brother-ish