<P> From 1789 through late 1941, the constitutionally established government required passports of citizens only during two periods: during the American Civil War (1861--1865), as well as during and shortly after World War I (1914--1918). The passport requirement of the Civil War era lacked statutory authority . During World War I (1914--1918), European countries instituted passport requirements . The Travel Control Act of May 22, 1918, permitted the president, when the United States was at war, to proclaim a passport requirement, and President Wilson issued such a proclamation on August 18, 1918 . World War I ended on November 11, 1918, but the passport requirement lingered until March 3, 1921, the last day of the Wilson administration . </P> <P> In Europe, general peace between the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815) and the beginning of World War I (1914), and development of rail roads, gave rise to international travel by large numbers of people . Countries such as Czarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire maintained passport requirements . After World War I, many European countries retained their passport requirements . Foreign passport requirements undercut the absence of a passport requirement for Americans exiting the country, under United States law, between 1921 and 1941 . </P> <P> The contemporary period of required passports for Americans under United States law began on November 29, 1941 . A 1978 amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 made it unlawful to enter or depart the United States without an issued passport even in peacetime . </P> <P> Even when passports were not usually required, Americans requested U.S. passports . Records of the Department of State show that 130,360 passports were issued between 1810 and 1873, and that 369,844 passports were issued between 1877 and 1909 . Some of those passports were family passports or group passports . A passport application could cover, variously, a wife, a child, or children, one or more servants, or a woman traveling under the protection of a man . The passport would be issued to the man . Similarly, a passport application could cover a child traveling with his or her mother . The passport would be issued to the mother . The number of Americans who traveled without passports is unknown . </P>

When were passports required to enter the us