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Minnesota Enhanced Driver’s License

Release Date
Mon, 02/03/2014

Washington— U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in partnership with the State of Minnesota is pleased to announce the Minnesota Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL) as the newest Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHITI) compliant document for entry into the United States at all land and sea ports of entry starting February 3, 2014.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has worked very closely with the U.S. states and Canadian provinces to develop a secure, highly tamper resistant Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL) that includes vicinity radio frequency identification (RFID) capability, a machine readable zone – optical character read (MRZ-OCR) and contains multiple layers of overt, covert and forensic security features.

Minnesota brings the number of U.S. states with EDLs to five, joining Michigan, New York, Vermont and Washington. The Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec are also currently issuing EDLs.

The Enhanced Driver’s License is an acceptable standalone Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) compliant document for entry into the United States at all land and sea ports of entry.  The Minnesota EDL is only available to United States citizens.  When the EDL is presented by a United States citizen traveler, no other documentation is required for purposes of proving identity and citizenship.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

Last Modified: Feb 03, 2021