Beware - new requirements for all travel to the USA

[Jeanne]

On 1st October 2003, entry to the USA whether for a stay or on transit will be refused to holders of 'old style' EU passports which do not contain the machine readable two-line codes at the bottom of the biographical data pages, unless they have a valid immigrant or non-immigrant visa. If you are planning a trip to the States, or are looking at those nice and affordable Bahamas Holidays via Miami after 1st October, get busy getting yourself a machine readable passport 'pronto' to benefit from the Visa Waiver programme, or, you'll have to make an appointment an interview to be vetted at the US Embassy for a visa, which may actually take several weeks to get.

Hope this will help many divers and non divers to avoid last minute panic and worse!

Jeanne

[Bren Tierney]

Hi Jeanne,

Thanks for this update.

I don't want to be seen as casting doubt on the veracity of this news, but might I ask as to where you derived it? US Embassy website? State Dept?

Thanks in advance for any light shone.

Bren.

[Bren Tierney]

Here ya go:

<a href="http://www.passport.gov.uk/news/news.asp?intElement=589" >http://www.passport.gov.uk/news/news.asp?intElement=589</a>

HTH

Bren.

[webmaster]

Here's another source of enlightenment on this development.

Mike

Hi Jeanne,

Thanks for this update.

I don't want to be seen as casting doubt on the veracity of this news, but might I ask as to where you derived it? US Embassy website? State Dept?

Thanks in advance for any light shone.

Bren.

[Dave]

Hi Jeanne,

Thanks for this update.

I don't want to be seen as casting doubt on the veracity of this news, but might I ask as to where you derived it? US Embassy website? State Dept?

It is genuine information ; for UK nationals it is of zero concern aside from a handful of people with Blue Passports issued at one of the few overseas Consulates which still have/has them in stock. Anyone with a passport issued in the UK ( Red ) , has nothing to be concerned about...other than the aggravation of travel to/from/though the USA

Dave

[edward haynes]

One of the few with a 'red' passport which I will have to change before Nov. It was going to run out next year anyway.

There are more changes being introduced by the USA in Oct 04.

Edward

It is genuine information ; for UK nationals it is of zero concern aside from a handful of people with Blue Passports issued at one of the few overseas Consulates which still have/has them in stock. Anyone with a passport issued in the UK ( Red ) , has nothing to be concerned about...other than the aggravation of travel to/from/though the USA

Dave

[jeanne]

One of the few with a 'red' passport which I will have to change before Nov. It was going to run out next year anyway.

There are more changes being introduced by the USA in Oct 04.

Edward

:=It is genuine information ; for UK nationals it is of zero concern aside from a handful of people with Blue Passports issued at one of the few overseas Consulates which still have/has them in stock. Anyone with a passport issued in the UK ( Red ) , has nothing to be concerned about...other than the aggravation of travel to/from/though the USA
:=
:=Dave

Hi guys,

Thanks for completing the links for me, I completely forgot to do that, very remiss of me, very sorry.

To complete the story, here is the information retrievable from the horse's mouth, so to speak: www.usembassy.org.uk, go to the Visa link on the bottom left hand corner and navigate the copious pages.

Does the BSAC count only British members? I am not one of those, sorry I am French! Don't worry, I love you guys!

I think you may be a little optimistic in saying that Brits with a red passport don't need to worry. The data encription technology for passports saw light of day in the late 90's and most European passport agencies only started issuing the encoded variety in 2000/2001, the Swiss being meticulous and cautious only started in January 2003! So, since a passport as a 10 year life, there are very likely plenty British passports, and other European passports pre 2000 in the old style kicking around, aren't they? I just assume so, and I think it is in everyone's interest (British or not) to do a quick check, just in case.

That was the aim of my message, over and out!

Jeanne

[Mike Halligan]

Jeanne,

Good advice, for which thanks. In fact the chronology is quite complicated. My last blue UK passport was stolen in the summer of 1990, about half way into its life. I had it replaced that autumn, when my local passport office started issuing new machine readable (red) ones. These were not the current, more secure version.

However, other UK passport offices were at that time still issuing blue ones. The new system was being introduced office by office. I think more blue ones may have been used in urgent cases - to get over problems when the whole thing went horribly wrong later on. Numbers are around 5 million UK passports issued a year, so by now all 50 million should be red, all should be machine readable, but 50% or more may be earlier, unencrypted product.

I am now well into my second machine readable passport (2000 edition) and I can confirm it does clear US scrutiny. I can't say whether the first edition of machine readable UK passport is accepted, as the nearest I got to US with mine was Canada. However, there is good advice elsewhere from, I think, Edward. The Dept of Homeland Security is constantly finding new ways to secure the borders. If more is to come in 2004, we must be vigilant.

The US is not alone in this activity. UK recently ruled against and then relaxed it views on Commonwealth citizens engaged in gap years. I think some of those countries are caught much as are France and Belgium.

Belgium has a problem because (I believe) she has barely started on EU Common Format (i.e. machine readable) passports. Therefore, her citizens must apply for visas - not because the US hasn't offered the waiver, but because they cannot comply with the scheme conditions.

It has become a hard world for the innocent traveller. But then, is it safe for innocents to be abroad?

Safe diving,

Mike

[Dave]

One of the few with a 'red' passport which I will have to change before Nov. It was going to run out next year anyway.

Since you have a red passport, there is no issue. On the picture page of the passport at the back, at the bottom of the page there is all the passport information encoded which can just be read in automatically

Dave

[Dave]

Does the BSAC count only British members? I am not one of those, sorry I am French! Don't worry, I love you guys!

No, but since I believe that a high percentage of users here are British, it was worth , imo, clarifying that it mainly affected non UKers


I think you may be a little optimistic in saying that Brits with a red passport don't need to worry. The data encription technology for passports saw light of day in the late 90's and most European passport agencies only started issuing the encoded variety in 2000/2001,

All the red passports in the UK do, iirc, have the machine readable bit

Dave

[Mike Halligan]

All the red passports in the UK do, iirc, have the machine readable bit

Dave,

I think the US definition is "machine-readable" which you're right does apply to every red UK passport. Encryption, mentioned by Jeanne, may not apply to the earlier ones, but I don't see the US demanding that at present.

Mike

[Mike Halligan]

Those affected might do well to check this news story and follow it up with a visit to the US State Department website.

Mike

[Jeanne]

Thanks for the update, I stumbled across similar news at
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3095292.stm" >http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3095292.stm</a>. Not a done deal yet, but hope is on the horizon (at least for me, a frequent travel to the US and without the all important 'machine readable passport', thanks to my government' remiss action in ignoring this basic need for its expats!

Jeanne