常時英心:言葉の森から 1.0

約10年間,はてなダイアリーで英語表現の落穂拾いを行ってきました。現在はAmeba Blogに2.0を開設し,継続中です。こちらはしばらくアーカイブとして維持します。

enhanced driver's licence

米加国境の行き来にも時代の流れが押し寄せているのですね。ここのenhanced driver's licenceとNexus passの説明をお願いします。temple gateさん、どうぞ。(GP)

With no passport on hand, Canadian flashes iPad scan to get into U.S.

A Canadian man has found an unusual way to get through U.S. Customs – by flashing an iPad. The Montrealer said he was about a half-an-hour drive from the Vermont border last week when he realized he had forgotten his passport at home. Mr. Reisch remembered he had stored a scanned copy of the document on his iPad and decided to attempt to cross, instead of turning his car around for the two-hour drive home. “I figured I’d try, and in the worst case, I would have to go home,” he said Tuesday.

Mr. Reisch, 33, said he explained his situation to the customs agent, who seemed mildly annoyed when he handed him the iPad. “He kind of gave me a stare, like neither impressed nor amused,” Mr. Reisch said of their exchange last Friday in southern Quebec. The officer took the iPad into the border office for five minutes before coming back out to give Mr. Reisch the green light and wish him happy holidays.

“He was very nice about it,” he said of the officer. “I think a good part of it had to do with the fact that it was the holidays and I seem like a nice-enough person.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it will accept documentation such as a passport, an enhanced driver’s licence or a Nexus pass from Canadian citizens entering at land crossings. The list doesn’t mention facsimiles, like scans and photocopies.

A spokeswoman for the department did not immediately respond to questions Tuesday on whether scanned passports are also commonly accepted at U.S. points of entry. Mr. Reisch, who went to Vermont to see friends and take landscape photos, said he also successfully used the passport on his iPad to get through Canadian Customs on the way home later that day.

He hopes border officials eventually make digital identification an official form of travel document. “I like the idea of things being catalysts for change,” said the freelance photographer and videographer, who noted that many airlines now accept digital boarding passes stored on smartphones. “It’s a recognized form of checking in [on airlines], so I see the future as 100-per-cent being able to cross with your identity on a digital device – it’s just a matter of time.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/with-no-passport-on-hand-canadian-flashes-ipad-scan-to-get-into-us/article2290029/