For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryContact: 202-282-8010October 22, 2004
Fact Sheet: MachineReadable Passports
Beginning October 26, 2004, officers from the U.S. Department of HomelandSecuritys (DHS) Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will beginenforcing requirements that travelers applying for admission under the VisaWaiver Program (VWP) must be in possession of a machine-readable passport. Following procedures announced today, if, after October 26, 2004, a VisaWaiver Program national presents him or herself for admission to the UnitedStates without a machine-readable passport or non-immigrant visa, a CBP officeris permitted to grant a one-time exemption to admit the traveler to the UnitedStates. The traveler will be issued a letter explaining the U.S. entryrequirements and his or her passport will be annotated that a one-time exemptionhas been granted.
These interim procedures will allow U.S. Customs and Border Protectionofficers to effectively enforce the law and exercise discretion whenappropriate, said Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security AsaHutchinson. These are prudent steps to ease travelers into these newdocumentation requirements. The United States is a welcoming nation and wedo not want to turn people away because they do not possess the newly requiredpassport or a valid non-immigrant visa.
When granting the exemption, CBP officers will notify the traveler of therequirement for a machine-readable passport or that they can obtain anon-immigrant visa for subsequent visits. If a traveler fails to obtain amachine-readable passport or a non-immigrant visa for subsequent visits, theymay be refused entry under the VWP.
Each VWP applicant must present an individual machine-readable passport. This is a change for family members who have applied for admission underone passport in the past. As announced last year, families must haveindividual machine-readable passports for everyone, including children. CBPofficers can apply the same one-time exemption to families as well.
The new machine-readable document requirement had been scheduled to go intoeffect last year. Since the U.S. announced it was extending theimplementation date from October 1, 2003, until October 26, 2004, VWP countrieshave been taking steps to issue machine-readable passports and to communicateinformation about these new requirements to their citizens. To help theircitizens comply with the new document requirements, some countries are evenoffering to issue new machine-readable passports on the spot to their citizensat departure airports.
Through April 25, 2005, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will not imposefines on transportation carriers for transporting VWP travelers from 22countries to the U.S. without a machine-readable passport. The 22countries are: Austria, Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland,Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UnitedKingdom.
Congress has extended the deadline for the inclusion of biometrics in VWP-countrypassports until October 26, 2005. This does not affect the currentrequirements for machine-readable passports. An estimated 13 millionvisitors from Visa Waiver Countries enter the U.S. each year. Travelers fromVisa Waiver Countries are allowed to enter the U.S. for up to 90 days forbusiness or pleasure using only a passport.
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