San José de Mesillas (Mesillas) - Zacatecas

LAX, Oct. 1, 2007 (KABC-TV) - If you're traveling by air to Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean, you're going to want to remember to pack your passport. New passport rules go into effect Monday.

The law was supposed to go into effect in January, but the government had to put it on hold because there was so much confusion and so many people trying to get a passport all at once, which created a big backlog at the State Department.

As a result, they had to put the new regulations on hold.

For a while, just having an application for a passport was acceptable in order to get back into the country. If you traveled overseas and were coming back, as long as you had an application showing that you were going to get a passport you could get back into the country.

The State Department says the backlog is over now. More employees were brought in, so paperwork is being processed a lot quicker. The State Department says everyone is now up to speed.

About 16 million passports have been issued this year. Last year the State Department issued about 12 million.

The State Department says all employees are up to speed and the law will now go into effect as it was written.

In other words, if you are traveling out of the country by air and you want to get back into the country, you better have a passport.

"During the summer when we had a backlog of passport applications we allowed people to enter and leave with proof that they had applied for their passport," said David Donahue, State Department spokesman. "Now it's only taking six weeks for people to get a passport, for routine passports, and it's no longer required. Everyone will be required on Monday to have a passport to enter or leave the United States by air."

Keep in mind, the passport process does not apply if you're traveling by land or sea. You will not need a passport to get back into the country right now. Starting in January, if you're coming over the border from Mexico by car you will need two forms of identification, a driver's license and a birth certificate.

LINK: New Regulations (http://travel.state.gov)
LINK: Other Acceptable Documents (www.dhs.gov)
LINK: Find a Location to Apply for a Passport (http://iafdb.travel.state.gov/)
LINK: How to Renew Your Passport (http://travel.state.gov)
LINK: How to Get a Passport (http://travel.state.gov)
LINK: Permitted and Prohibited Carry-On Items (www.tsa.gov)