Should You Buy Passport Book Or Passport Card?

The United States government provides two forms of travel documents to its citizens: a passport book and card. Both documents can be used for international travel, though each offers slightly different travel capabilities: most people are familiar with passport books which can be used for all forms of international travel including air travel; however passport cards have more restrictive travel capabilities that include sea border crossings as well as land travel within Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean only.

Both documents come in small formats that make them easy to carry around with you in your wallet, containing similar information about yourself: your full name, nationality, date and place of birth, sex status, photo and an alphanumeric eight-digit number. However, passport books offer greater mobility when traveling abroad.

First-time applicants often find it more expensive to acquire a passport book than card. Passport books cost $145 for adults and $115 for minors while passport cards only cost $60 each, though cards cannot be used with Ready Lanes at border crossings; this could make the latter option the better option if visiting Canada and Mexico frequently; they cannot however be used domestically for domestic flights; though both types can still use real ID as ID documents for travel purposes.