Bugsy

We are a family of UK residents who are considering visiting the USA shortly
after Easter 2005.

4 of us have MRP's which expire no earlier than 2007 so my understanding is
that our MRP's will allow us to enter the USA under the VWP

However, this is the complication.

My wife is expecting and the baby is due Oct 3rd.

Ideally, once the baby is born I should take a picture and apply for a
passport and hope that it is processed before Oct 24th.

However, being serious for a moment there is a possibility we won't be able
to do this.

Therefore will the new arrival need a Visa for travel the following Easter
(I think the answer is yes)

Will the new arrival have to attend an interview?

many thanks,

Dave

Englishmum

What is an 'MRP'?

From what I can tell, you are concerned about the US immigration authorities only admitting non-visa holders on biometric passports after October 24th 2004?

The UK govt. apparently does not yet have the technology in place to issue biometric passports and from what I understand (from online newspaper reports) there may well be an extension date because the US tourist indurstry will be hit very hard because visitors from visa-waiver countries will choose to take holidays in other countries. Unfortunately nothing has been formally announced by the BCIS (yet).

Ray

machine Readable Passport (mrp)

Ray

An Act is going thru Congress at this time to extend the date by 2 years ..it will pass

crg

The act before congress relates to biometric passports and may not change the upcoming machine readable requirement.

Belgium requires a MRP passport already. The code typed at the bottom of the bio page makes it an MPR. The act relates to microchips, fingerprints, eye scans, and/or facial recognition.

Will the UK allow the baby to be listed in the mother or father's passport?

Lucy

"crg14624" <member20421@british_expats.com> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Originally posted by ray6
    > > An Act is going thru Congress
    > at this time to extend the date by 2 years ..it will pass
    > The
    > act before congress relates to biometric passports and may not change
    > the upcoming machine readable requirement.
    > Belgium requires a MRP
    > passport already. The code typed at the bottom of the bio page makes it
    > an MPR. The act relates to microchips, fingerprints, eye scans, and/or
    > facial recognition.

The passport issued to the baby will be machine-readable, so that's not an
issue.

As long as the requirement for microchips, fingerprints, etc is pushed out
for 2 years like ray6 said, then the OP shouldn't have a problem. Right?

And if they do need these biometric passports next Easter, won't the whole
family will need them? They just have regular machine-readable ones at the
moment. I don't see why the baby is a special case.

Lucy

crg

I don't see why the baby is a special case either. Getting a visa wouldn't matter because you still need to have a passport to stick the visa into. If they can't get baby a new passport in time, they can't come unless they can still travel with baby listed in one of the parent's passports.

Englishmum

You can't add children to British passports anymore.

The baby will actually need his or her own passport.....which isn't easy when you have to take a photograph! Most people have to go to a photography shop with a little, the photo booths in the Post Office or Woolworths just won't do!

Lucy

"crg14624" <member20421@british_expats.com> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > If they can't get baby a new passport in time, they can't come unless
    > they can still travel with baby listed in one of the parent's passports.

As I understood it, they will be able to get a passport in time (baby is due
at the beginning of October and they are not coming until Easter), but they
were concerned about getting the passport before Oct 24th.

However, Oct 24th is the date that the US will no longer allow people in
without a visa if they don't have a machine-readable passport. The date the
passport was issued is not relevant as far as I can see.

I think maybe the OP was confused?

Lucy

crg

Either way, it appears that they're going to push back the biometric passport requirement by at least one year, and add US-VISIT to visa waiver countries to make Congress happy.

Bugsy

    > However, Oct 24th is the date that the US will no longer allow people in
    > without a visa if they don't have a machine-readable passport. The date
the
    > passport was issued is not relevant as far as I can see.
    > I think maybe the OP was confused?

OP Here!

I probably am confused! My understanding is that if I can get an MRP dated
before oct 24 life is alot easier.

If it's dated later than that then the baby needs a visa.

UNLESS the requirement for a visa is moved back.....

Dave