At long last and after much ado, the U.S. Department of State finally has begun mailing out new passport cards.

The State Department already has issued hundreds of thousands of the nifty travel accessory. I received mine the week of Aug. 20, after a wait of more than five months.

The passport card is an “in lieu of” travel document, taking the place of the much-larger traditional passport book. It can be used only for overland or sea travel in North America.

Developed in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the new card complies with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative and marries new technology — and security — with convenience. Theoretically, U.S. citizens now can drive from Acapulco, Mexico, across the United States to Quebec City, Canada, with the card. It permits travel — but not air travel— to and from Canada, Mexico and 16 regions in the Caribbean Basin and Bermuda, and the U.S. of course.

The passport card itself fits easily into a man’s shirt pocket and is the same size as an Ohio driver’s license. Now it’s no longer necessary to stop one’s vehicle short of the border to fish a passport book from your tote bag or car trunk. The new card fits in a man’s wallet or a lady’s purse.

Steve Royster, spokesman for U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, is enthusiastic about the new passport card.

“There are all sort of security features built into it, including a hologram feature, which is embedded within the interior of the card,” he says. Adding the hologram makes the card difficult to counterfeit, and adulterating it will destroy the card, Royster says.

The hard plastic card contains a magnetic strip with the holder’s vital information, which can be read by machine: nationality, surname, given names, sex, date and place of birth, the same information included on the card’s face or in the much-larger passport book. The holder’s image is embedded within the card, which is designed with patriotic images in shades of red, white and blue, and gray and turquoise on the obverse. The bar code on the back side of the card conveys identifying electronic information, and connects it to the bearer’s personal data contained in government and law-enforcement databases, which should facilitate border crossings, and help border agents make a judgment regarding a person’s admissibility in a country.

Unlike a driver’s license, which proves only residency — and driving ability, Royster points out — the new passport card also proves U.S. citizenship, affording the bearer all the rights that go along with being a U.S. citizen, including legal and consular protections. The passport card is a stand-alone document: One does not need to have a passport book in order to obtain a passport card.

As a holder of a passport already, my new passport card, which is valid for 10 years, cost only $20, only $2 a year. Royster said the cost of either a passport book or passport card includes a fee for execution — researching and processing the application — and one for production. Royster explained that applicants who apply for a passport book and a passport card together, pay only one execution fee, thereby saving money.

Black and white passport-sized photographs, available at local drugstores for about $8, are required to obtain either a passport book or passport card. To obtain a passport card, print out the two-page application from the State Department’s Web site (travel.state.gov). You will have to send in your present passport and $20. Your passport will be mailed back to you, and your new passport card will be mailed separately.

After a much-publicized backlog in passport orders and renewals, the State Department has reduced processing time for both passport books and passport cards down to about four weeks, Royster says.

Card advantages

You can leave your passport book at home, where it’s more secure;