Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

VISITOR VISA WAIVER PROGRAM (VWP) CHANGES FOR WAIVER COUNTRIES:

The 27 countries participating in the VWP include: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Any traveler from these 27 countries will need a machine-readable passport on June 26, 2005 to enter the United States. Last year, approximately 15 million VWP travelers visited the United States.


MACHINE READABLE PASSPORTS REQUIRED FOR ALL VISA WAIVER PROGRAM TRAVEL AS OF JUNE 26, 2005 - Below are some details taken from the online Press Room of the US. Department of Homeland Security.

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary

Department of Homeland Security
Contact: (202) 282-8010

May 12, 2005

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today reminded travelers from 27 Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries that as of June 26, 2005, they must have a machine-readable passport to enter the United States without a visa, as mandated by Congress. Machine-readable passports have a sequence of lines that can be swiped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers to confirm the passport holder’s identity quickly and to obtain other information about the holder typically found on a passport’s inside cover.

The Immigration and Nationality Act originally set October 1, 2003 as the date by which VWP travelers needed to present a machine-readable passport. At the request of 23 of the 27 VWP countries, the United States postponed that requirement until October 26, 2004, for those requesting countries. For a limited period, DHS has been authorizing a one-time waiver for entry into the country for VWP travelers without a machine-readable passport, at no charge to the traveler. This limited period will end on June 26, 2005. Beginning June 26, 2005, transportation carriers will be fined $3,300, per violation, for transporting any VWP traveler to the United States without a machine-readable passport. Similarly, VWP travelers arriving in the United States on that date without a machine-readable passport should not anticipate being granted one-time entry into the country.

“The machine-readable passport benefits foreign visitors as much as it does homeland security,” said Randy Beardsworth, Acting Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security. “With one fast swipe, front line officers can pull up the information that they need to process legitimate travelers quickly. At the same time, this immediate information access enables our officers to focus even more on identifying and interdicting potential threats.”

Since October 26, 2004, CBP officers have notified VWP travelers entering the United States with a letter explaining the new entry requirements. In addition, VWP countries are working closely with the United States Government to communicate information about these new requirements to their citizens. Anyone from the 27 VWP countries thinking of traveling to the United States is encouraged to check with their passport issuing authority to ensure they are in possession of a machine-readable passport. As an alternative for persons with immediate travel plans who are unable to obtain a machine-readable passport in time, the individual may apply for a U.S. visa at a U.S. Consulate or Embassy abroad.

The machine-readable passport requirements do not affect the separate congressionally mandated deadline requiring VWP country passports issued on or after October 26, 2005, to contain biometrics in order to be used for visa free travel to the United States.

Re: Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

The UK was one of the countries that didn't ask for the extention I don't think and needed a MRP for a good year now...so it's hardly new news or anything worth copy and pasting into all the forums...

Re: Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

I disagree.

The rules have been in place since 26 Oct 2004, but this is saying that they will be more strictly enforced from 26 June 2005.

The 'extension' you refer to was the original deadline from 1 October 2003 to 26 October 2004.

Once again - anyone with children on parents passports will get no further than the check-in desk for a US bound flight, if planning to use the visa waiver. An amazing number of people still haven't got children their own passports (the UK put children on parents passports up to 5 October 1998).

Jeremy

Re: Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

just wait until you have to have a biometric one to enter the US without a visa. That's supposed to come into effect at the end of this year, although I'm sure extensions will be given out as no one yet seems to be confirming to what the Us is demanding they incorporate into their pasports. Hopefully I can get a Canadian passport before then and not worry about it. It's pretty annoying if you work for a company in Canada that is based in the US (which isn't uncommon) and so you have to go there on business.

Re: Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

I go to the US on business a couple of times a month and also go about once a month for domestic reasons. The most recent time being Wednesday of last week. I use my driving license rather than a passport. I do carry my passports in case they're requested but, thus far, there's been no fuss in real life. There has been, of course, in the papers and on the internet.

Re: Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

My children are in my EC passport and do not have their own EC ones (they do have Swiss and Canadian passports). Unless one of them wants to live in the EC is there any advantage in getting them their own ?

Re: Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

Incidentally the biometric requirement will (as far as I am aware) only apply to new passports issued after the deadline. This is different to the machine readable passport deadline, which is retrospective.

One has to presume the powers that be will work something out because:

- the US will not necessarily want to have to issue tourist visas to people from visa waiver countries just for this reason
- the US itself may not be in a position to have biometrics in US passports before 2006
- the State Dept will not want US citizens to lose their existing rights to visa free travel (other countries may well retaliate against a visa imposition by the US)

Jeremy

Re: Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

A passport will soon be required to enter the US, even for Canadians:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html

When will the new travel initiative requirement be implemented?

- December 31, 2005 – Passport or other accepted document required for all travel (air/sea) to or from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Central and South America.

- December 31, 2006 – Passport or other accepted document required for all air and sea travel to or from Mexico and Canada.

- December 31, 2007 – Passport or other accepted document required for all air, sea and land border crossings."

Other than a passport, what types of documents will be acceptable under this initiative?

The passport is the document of choice because of the incorporated advanced security features. Individuals traveling to the Caribbean, Bermuda, Panama, Mexico or Canada are encouraged to obtain a passport.

For land border crossings, other documents that we anticipate will be acceptable under this Initiative are SENTRI, NEXUS and FAST program cards. These are current international frequent traveler programs.

We anticipate that the Border Crossing Card (BCC – also known as “laser visa”) will also be acceptable as a substitute for a passport and a visa for citizens of Mexico traveling to the United States from contiguous territory.



Jeremy

Re: Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

There is no such thing as an 'EC passport.'
Passports are issued by countries.

If they have individual Swiss and Canadian passports, then they do not need individual passports for any other EEA state.

Provided they have separate proof of citizenship (to avoid the nasty surprise of discovering too late they are not citizens after all).

Swiss passports allow residence in any EEA state, including the UK.

For travelling to the US, they can use either a Canadian passport (preferably) or a Swiss one provided it's machine readable. Switzerland is part of the visa waiver scheme, however check their passports carefully as many Swiss passports are *not* machine readable.


Jeremy

Re: Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

I'll put it another way. They are stamped in my passport, which was issued in the UK and, in the previous version was termed a British passport. Can you imagine an advantage to them in using this to get them individual pink passports issued in the UK, or by the British authorities in Ottawa ?

Re: Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

If they have no other proof of their British citizenship (such as a consular birth certificate, a Certificate of Registration or Naturalisation, or a UK birth cert if born before 1983), getting a full validity individual passport is the only way to document this.

I'm not sure how confident I'd be in using the fact they are in a parent's passport as real proof of citizenship. There are lots of cases where parents *think* their children are British when they're not, and only discover too late to fix this by registration.

It's still a *British* passport, incidentally. Why you say 'in the previous version' is unclear.

Jeremy

Re: Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

Hmmm, in order to be entered in the passport, a birth certificate was required showing the passport holder as a parent. At the time, and I'd think now, the child of a British person was British, so the entry in the passport is, surely, proof of citizenship. I don't follow how a child could be entered in the passport without having a claim to citizenship.

British passports are rarely seen these days, they're blue and have no reference to Europe in them; something like the US passport.

Re: Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

Not normally but mistakes can be made.

Excuse me, but the red passports are still British passports. They are issued in the name of the British government, and only to British citizens and others holding British nationality.

The fact that they are in a common format to passports issued by other European states is irrelevant. In fact standards for passports are becoming increasingly international - the ID page data is in a pretty similar format on British, Canadian and Australian passports for example.

A British passport is a completely different document to a French, German or Danish passport.

There is no such thing as a "European passport". Until the French and Germans merge into some 'Confederation of Franco-Germania' and this new country is recognised by the international community, there won't be.


Jeremy

Re: Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

Unless the child is 2nd generation born overseas.

When I was getting my citizenship, they wanted proof of my dad's citizenship. I said I'd send his Canadian passport - they (CHC London) said don't bother, passport doesn't mean a thing...they get given to non-entitled people so often!

Re: Visitor Visa Waiver Program Changes For Waiver Countries
 

And this rule has been in place as far as British nationality is concerned since 1915. It's not a new thing.

If the child is second generation born overseas, it may be possible to register the child as British provided certain requirements are met and application is made within 12 months of the child's birth.

This is what I meant (and cases like this) when I said some parents make the big mistake of assuming that their child is British when it is not. And then only discover a problem after the time limit for applying for registration.

The problem is that the UK does not give citizenship certificates to those who automatically acquire British nationality.

And they don't do consular birth registration in Canada, although they do in the US.

Other than a passport, the documents that generally prove British citizenship (barring evidence to the contrary) are:

- a UK birth certificate where the person was born before 1983
- where the person was born before 1983 in a place which is still a British territory (Sovereign Base Areas of Cyprus excepted), a birth certificate
- a consular birth certificate where the person was born outside the UK in 1983 or later
- a Certificate of Registration or Naturalisation as a British citizen

Some British citizens will not have any of these documents. In that case, only a full validity, individual British passport can evidence British citizenship.

Jeremy