Dear A-Letter Reader:

As you can imagine, the pages of my U.S. passport are filled with official customs and immigration stamps from many nations.

Traveling thousands of miles each year to Europe, Asia, and Latin America, occasionally I run into folks like the Canadian customs officer in Vancouver who examined my well-traveled passport and sneered: "You travel an awful lot - why?" Fixing his eyes with mine own, I replied in my best courtroom voice: "Because I'm a lawyer." "Oh!" he exclaimed. Then he stamped my passport and waived me on. No need to tangle with a lawyer.

Comes word last week from official Washington that American travelers flying to nearby locations across the border will soon need passports to do so. Up until recently a motor vehicle operator's license or other photo ID has been sufficient. But beginning on Jan. 23, 2007, U.S. citizens leaving or entering the country from airports in Canada, Bermuda, Mexico, Panama and South and Central America will have to present valid U.S. passports in order to be allowed back into the U.S. (Land and sea travel will be included as early as Jan. 1, 2008).

Supposedly this is a security measure recommended by the 9/11 Commission. But exactly how this added inconvenience will bar terrorists is unclear. Some of the 9/11 hijackers used falsified passports to enter the country, but others had valid U.S. visas.

I believe this latest intrusion on our right to travel is yet another way that Big Brother keeps tabs on where we are and what we are doing.

In various ways, government increasingly uses issuance of a passport to their citizens as a means of coercion. In the U.S., for example, a citizen can be denied a passport simply for being in debt to the Internal Revenue Service, because of other problems with federal government agencies or because they are behind in excess of $2,500 in payments for court ordered child support.

Since 1986, the U.S. State Department has been informing the IRS of all persons who renew their U.S. passports using a foreign address. I wonder why? Since passport renewals require an applicant's Social Security number, this is also used by the IRS to see if applicants have filed income tax returns. An IRS official speaking in Zurich said a special effort was made by the agency to track all U.S. citizens who renewed U.S. passports while living in Switzerland, for reasons we can surely guess.

There is a growing tendency in leading countries to follow the unfortunate lead of the United States in taxing non-resident citizens. Alternative citizenship is, therefore, increasingly important as a powerful tool for your international tax planning. As a dual national of two different countries, you also can enjoy added privacy in your banking and investment activities.

There are other immediate threats from government. Depending on your nation's policies, your government may use your passport to restrict your basic human right to travel, rather than to guarantee it. Use of your passport can be made contingent on payment of your taxes, however unreasonable, and on reporting of worldwide income and assets. Issuance of your passport allows your government to control, restrict, monitor, and record your travels.
  
Now you can understand why a second passport can be highly useful. When you qualify for a second nation's passport, one that comes with no restrictive strings attached, that document can serve as your passport to a new freedom. It can be your key to a whole new world of free movement, expanded international investment, greater flexibility, and adventure. I suggest you check out the possibilities now, as restrictions on Americans' right to travel continue to tighten.

That's the way that it looks from here.
 
BOB BAUMAN, Editor

• Legally slash premiums to a minimum, without sacrificing quality coverage
• Make money off your insurance payments
• Resolve claims faster and more efficiently
• Protect your business from soaring premium hikes
• And save thousands - even tens of thousands - on taxes in the process!