You may have read about a Canadian man who got into the U.S.A. with no passport and only a scan of it on his iPad to show that he had one. After reviewing the situation for a few minutes, the border guard let him through and wished the man happy holidays. So you can now get into the country with just scanned copies of a passport? Not quite. The iPad is just part of the story. The man in question, Martin Reisch, also showed the guard his driver's license, and border guards can verify identities via other means, too.
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?The assertion that a traveler was admitted into the U.S. using solely a scanned image of his passport on an iPad is categorically false," a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Mashable. "In this case, the individual had both a driver's license and birth certificate, which the CBP officer used to determine identity and citizenship in order to admit the traveler into the country."
Reisch, however, told the Canadian Press that he only showed his driver's license. Even if that's the case, CBP says it gives guards a lot of latitude in terms of what they can consider (a "variety of other means") when approving or denying entry of visitors.
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Gaining legitimate entry to the United States without a passport would be an unusual event were it not for the man's country of origin: Canada. Although border rules toughened up in 2009 to require Canadians to show passports when crossing into the U.S., for decades prior to that, typically all that was needed was a driver's licence. The border between Canada and the U.S.A. is the longest undefended border in the world, and millions of people cross it every year.
Reisch says he was traveling by car from Montreal to the States to drop off some Christmas gifts when he realized he had forgotten his passport about half an hour from the border. Rather than turn back, he decided to try crossing the border with a scan of his passport, which he happened to have on the iPad he took with him.
Many Canadians (myself included) can relate. If you've crossed the border more than a few times, chances are you have a tale about an unserious "forbidden" item winked at, a forgotten form shrugged off, or an exceeded duty-free limit waived. On the other hand, sometimes guards bar entry of perfectly legitimate visitors for little or no reason.
Have you had an experience at the U.S.-Canada border that was unusual? Relate your story in the comments.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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