The posts about passport cards not being different from regular passports are inaccurate. They are absolutely different as they allow you into the ready lane which is usually a fraction of the regular lanes when crossing on foot. For park and walk, I’ve never waited more than 10 minutes to come back. I have crossed probably a dozen or more times in the last 12 months, probably 9 on foot and 3 by car and also 3 by sea but those 3 weren’t TJ. In the last few months they changed the lanes and gave more preference to redi lanes, but once I took the wrong street and ended up in the regular lanes and it took 45 minutes. Passport books are worthless for land/sea travel in North America and the Caribbean. They are the equivalent of a drivers license and a good story and you will wait hours at any time of day.
There are websites that give average wait times and they vary wildly, just like traffic stateside. Plan your next trip, just like you would not choose to traverse Los Angeles freeways at 4pm on a Friday. Border “rush hour”is not the same as our traffic “rush hour.”
It’s another country, a foreigner stuck in chargers traffic on friars could say the same thing. Always check the soccer schedule and the Mexican holidays as well.
I’m a big fan of the passport card if sentri isn’t warranted based on your trip count. I used my passport card in the Caribbean, Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and for TJ crossings all in the last year and it was a breeze because your info is read and run before you walk up to the customs official, due to the chip. The analog passport book is still the only thing used for air travel internationally and it is much slower (card only works for land and sea travel in north america, caribbean and some other islands like the bahamas). BG was right, at renewal of the book, the card is only $30 more, applied for by itself it’s a little more.
One note, if you go with other people in a car and 1 person is without a card, none of you can use that lane. On foot you are stuck waiting for the one without a card. My policy, if you don’t have the card you aint going with me!
