McBadger

Not sure I've seen this posted here yet:

From the grauniad.

mikelincs

Not 'could be' as in the title, but 'will be' as in the article, no biometric passport, which apparently applies to some 400,000 people with British Passports, no travel to the US, they are not being allowed on the plane.

H Bomb

I don't understand how this affects anyone.

I can understand there are still some people with non-biometric passports that were issued April-Sept 2006 before biometric passports were issued in October - but if you add the 6 months you need on your passport to travel to the US there should be no issues.

The US have clearly waited til that specific date to implement this based upon the above assumption. So how is this causing issues?

Do some people have passports that last longer than 10 years?
Or is it they have not previously enforced the 6 months on the passport rule but now they technically have to due to the hard date and people are getting caught out by that?

teejaydee

It seems it is "have been". According to the following article, some passengers have already been refused boarding:

Britons with 'wrong passport' stopped from travelling to US - BBC News

MidAtlantic

According to the US Embassy website the 6 month rule does not apply to British Citizens visiting the US. Therefore it is exactly those who hold passports issued April - September 2006 who are being caught out.

H Bomb

Ah I see - just checked and the passport only needs to be valid for the period of your stay. I always had in my mind it was 6 months for some reason.

Giantaxe

My British passport was issued in September '06 and it's biometric. I suspect the date of introduction was actually some time during September '06 rather than October, or maybe the DC embassy started issuing them earlier?

MidAtlantic

This from gov.uk indicates they were issued gradually through 2006:

The first e-passport was issued by our central production facility on the 6th
March 2006. These e-passports introduced a new design with additional
security features, including a chip with the holder’s facial biometric. The
passport showed the personal details at the back page with the chip and
antenna visible on observation page. They were introduced gradually
throughout 2006. This mirrored the introduction of e-passports in over 40
other countries and ensured the UK remained within the US visa waiver
scheme.

A further complication with the timing is that up to 9 months remaining on your old passport can be transferred to your new one so if, say, you renewed in June 2006 and got a non-biometric one it could still be valid until March 2017.

mrken30

I believe you can still use a non-biometric passport as long as you apply for a visa before travelling. It's probably better to get a new passport.

Another thing that has been rasied recently in the press is drink drive convictions. It's surprising that people still not know that this may affect your travel plans.

http://www.confused.com/car-insuranc...velling-abroad

mikelincs

The person in the article was travelling on the ESTA, and with the likelihood of a visa being denied if you qualify for ESTA, then there doesn't seem a lot of point in going for a visa, just renew your British Passport and everything will be OK, and a lot less cost than going for a B visa.

mrken30

I thought the article was saying that if you have a conviction , you cannot travel under ESTA and would have to apply for a visa. I think you may have have to apply for ESTA to travel on VWP.

tom169

I've been texted 3 times about this already. Seems when the DM and other outlets run a story then overreaction ensues.

Bermudashorts

I was married in June 2006 and got my passport in new name immediately afterwards as I got it before I moved to Bermuda in July 2006. It is definitely biometric so this October date that keeps being referred to is just wrong. I don't know why anyone would be being caught out now, all those older passports should have expired.

BritInParis

The roll-out of the biometric passports was done over a period of six months so there isn't a definitive cut-off date.

There'll be a handful of people who still have a valid non-biometric passport, either because it was old non-biometric stock, issued overseas and/or had up to nine months added on, but even those will be expiring shortly.

MarylandNed

Read post #8