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We would like to advise visitors to the U.S. this Autumn of two recent changes to U.S. immigration entry requirements.

As of September 30, 2004, all Visa Waiver Programme travellers arriving at a U.S. port of entry, are required to enroll in US-VISIT, a procedure which has been introduced to improve the safety and security of visitors to the USA. This process involves collecting unique data on arrival and departure in the form of digital fingerprints and photographs. This takes place at the normal immigration desk as part of the entry process and it is not expected that the arrival process will take any longer than usual.

From October 26, 2004, each person visiting the USA has been required to have either a Machine Readable Passport and a Visa Waiver Form (the green form distributed inflight) or a valid U.S. visa. On a case by case basis, a one- time parole has been granted to Visa Waiver Program applicants who apply for admission and are not in possession of an MRP. This policy will cease on June 26, 2005. This exception does not apply to nationals of Andorra, Belgium, Brunei, Liechtenstein and Slovenia who wish to enter the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program. Nationals of these countries MUST have a machine-readable passport. On that date, if VWP travelers are not in possession of a machine-readable passport, they should not anticipate to be permitted to board an aircraft or cruise ship and if VWP travelers arrive at a US port of entry they may be denied admission to the United States.

It is important to note that families requesting entry on the Visa Waiver Programme will require individual Machine Readable passports for each traveller, including children. Children who are currently included in a parent's passport will need to obtain their own Machine Readable passport for visa-free travel to the U.S.

Machine Readable Passports (MRP)
Visa Free travellers entering the United States under the Visa Waiver Programme on or after October 26, 2004 will require individual Machine Readable Passports. MRPs allow data in the passport to be scanned automatically by a machine. The MRP has the holder's personal details, eg. name, date of birth, nationality and their passport number contained in two lines of text at the bottom of the photo page. This appears as two lines of letters, numbers and chevrons (">>>>>") printed across the long edge of the personal information page.

Travellers who are in any doubt as to whether or not their passport is MRP should check with the passport issuing authority of their country.

The requirement that each traveller be in possession of a machine readable passport applies only to those seeking entry into the United States under the Visa Waiver Programme; it does not apply to those adults and children applying for visas or who currently have valid U.S. visas.

The Visa Waiver Programme (VWP)
The Visa Waiver Programme allows the citizens of certain countries to travel to the USA without having to obtain a visa prior
to travel.

The nationalities currently entitled to use the VWP are:

Andorra	Denmark	Ireland	Monaco	San Marino	Switzerland
Australia	Finland	Italy	Netherlands	Singapore	UK
Austria	France	Japan	New Zealand	Slovenia
Belgium	Germany	Liechtenstein	Norway	Spain
Brunei	Iceland	Luxembourg	Portugal	Sweden

Nationals of these countries are required to have a Machine Readable Passport in order to travel under the Visa Waiver Programme. All Visa Waiver Programme countries currently have the capability of issuing machine readable passports. Holders of non-MRP passports wishing to travel on the visa waiver should contact the appropriate passport issuing authorities of their country to obtain the proper passport. A non-MRP passport can only to used to enter the United States if it contains a United States visa. Applications for U.S. visas must be made at a U.S. consulate or embassy abroad well in advance of travel dates.

To enter the U.S. under the VWP, travellers from participating countries must be seeking entry for 90 days or less, as a temporary visitor for business or pleasure.

Biometrically-encoded passports
U.S. law originally required that travellers under the Visa Waiver Programme carrying passports issued after October 26, 2004 would need to hold biometric passports. Biometrically-encoded passports will be embedded with a chip containing the passport holder's biometric identifier, such as digital fingerprints, hand geometry, facial recognition, iris scan, etc.

Due to technical challenges, few countries will be able to meet the October 26, 2004 deadline for the introduction of biometric passports. Therefore, President Bush signed into law a one-year extension for the date countries are required to produce biometric passports in order to remain eligible for the Visa Waiver Programme, delaying the requirement until October 2005.

Update/ June 15, 2005
The requirement for Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries to begin issuing biometrically-encoded passports has been extended to October 26, 2006. In the interim, VWP countries must issue passports with digitized photographs by October 26, 2005.

For additional information see the US-VISIT website at www.dhs.gov/us-visit