Qantas Frequent Flyer - US Requires Machine Readable Passports From Australian Citizens on 26 October

Don't forget that the US will require a machine readable passport for entry from Australian citizens by 26 October this year... Following is information regarding this which I copied from the US Dept of State website:

"The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) enables citizens of certain countries to travel to the United States for tourism or business for 90 days or less without obtaining a visa. Not all countries participate in the VWP. Some restrictions apply to this program as explained below.

NOTE: Representatives of the foreign press, radio, film, journalists or other information media, engaging in that vocation while in the U.S., require a nonimmigrant Media (I) visa cannot travel to the U.S. on the visa waiver program and cannot travel using a visitor visa, seeking admission by the DHS immigration inspector, at the U.S. at the port of entry.


What Are the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) Countries?

Currently, 27 countries participate in the Visa Waiver Program, as shown below:

Visa Waiver Program - Participating Countries

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

Note: Countries above with the (MRP) designation are required to have machine-readable passports (MRP) as of October 1, 2003 for travelers to enter the U.S on the visa waiver program. All other countries visa waiver program travelers above must have a MRP as of October 26, 2004 except Belgium, which has had an MRP requirement for VWP travelers since May 15, 2003.

What I Need to Know about VWP & the Required Machine Readable Passport?

The Secretary of State, working with the Department of Homeland Security, has granted a postponement until October 26, 2004, as the date by which visa waiver program travelers from 21 countries must present a machine-readable passport at a U.S. port of entry to be admitted to the United States without a visa. Five countries will continue with the October 1, 2003 deadline. The Patriot Act legislated the machine-readable passport requirement for visa waiver program travelers and additionally gave the Secretary of State authority to postpone the effective date.

Countries With an October 1, 2003 MRP Date - Four visa waiver program countries, specifically Andorra, Brunei, Liechtenstein, and Slovenia, did not request a postponement of the machine-readable passport effective date, because all or virtually all of their citizens already have machine-readable passports.

As of October 1, 2003, visa waiver travelers from Andorra, Brunei, Liechtenstein, and Slovenia must present either a machine-readable passport (MRP) or a U.S. visa at the port of entry to enter the U.S. This includes all categories of passports -- regular, diplomatic, and official, when the traveler is seeking to enter the U.S. for business or tourist purposes, for a maximum of 90 days without needing a visa.
Countries With a October 26, 2004 MRP Date - Travelers from countries granted the postponement can continue to travel, as they have in the past, without a machine-readable passport. On October 26, 2004 a machine-readable passport or U.S. visa will be required at the port of entry, to enter the U.S. without a visa. Countries with the machine-readable passport postponement until October 26, 2004 are:

Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Belgium, which is also a visa waiver country, was not eligible to receive this extension. Belgian nationals who wish to travel under the visa waiver program have been required to present a machine-readable passport since May 15, 2003.
What Is a Machine Readable Passport?

A machine readable passport has biographical data entered on the data page according to international specifications. The size of the passport and photograph, and arrangement of data fields, especially the two lines of printed OCR-B machine readable data, meet the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization, Doc 9303, Part 1 Machine Readable Passports. OCR-B means the type is Optical Character Reader size B. If there are questions about your passport, after carefully reviewing this information, and any information which may be available to you from your country, you may want to contact the passport issuing agency or authority in your country of citizenship."

Ummm, my first Australian passport - issued in 1987 - was machine readable. Since all passports are valid for a maximum of 10 years, I would have thought there would be no such beast as a non-machine-readable AU passport....

Dave

Apparently, International Standards for Passports were revised in 2002. It might be worth checking to see if present passports are readable according to the latest standard, rather than be left "standing at the gate!" I got into this today when printing a passport renewal form off the US Dept. of State website...

http://www.icao.int/mrtd/guidance/HistProgress.cfm

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by prspad:
Apparently, International Standards for Passports were revised in 2002. It might be worth checking to see if present passports are readable according to the latest standard, rather than be left "standing at the gate!" I got into this today when printing a passport renewal form off the US Dept. of State website...

http://www.icao.int/mrtd/guidance/HistProgress.cfm</font>

I can confirm that AUS passports meet the US requirements. I recently had my passport renewed out of LAX consulate just as the requirement was being brought in (before it was delayed). I panicked and called the AUS consulate and they assured me that AUS passports are machine readable. This was verified when I entered US.

The machine readbility is merely the letters and "&gt;"s at the bottom of the ID page - not exactly the height of technology.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by thadocta:
Ummm, my first Australian passport - issued in 1987 - was machine readable. Since all passports are valid for a maximum of 10 years, I would have thought there would be no such beast as a non-machine-readable AU passport....

Dave</font>

Maybe there are overseas issued AU passports that are non-machine-readable?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Kiwi Flyer:
Maybe there are overseas issued AU passports that are non-machine-readable?</font>

That's correct. In recent history (&lt;10 years) non-machine readable passports have been issued by Australian diplomatic posts abroad.

Under the new Australian passport system(since late last year), the document has been upgraded with the identity page as a stand alone page (rather than on the reverse of the cover) and passports are now only printed out of Canberra, Washington and London.

My Oz PP issued mid 2003 is certainly machine readable. The old one, however, was designed to be machine readable (with the right coding on the ID page) but JFK machines were illiterate at the time. This caused no end of problems for them and us (as firstly, they couldn't understand why we were doing a Concorde run LHR-JFK-LHR without wanting to spend time in NYC), and secondly 'coz the PP was unreadable. The guy eventually figured out he could enter the PP data manually and then we were recognised and told to "have a nice visit".

This article refers to further requirements for new passports from Oct. 26, including 'biometric features, such as digital photographs or fingerprints'

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/07/1073268078105.html

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by prspad:
Apparently, International Standards for Passports were revised in 2002. It might be worth checking to see if present passports are readable according to the latest standard, rather than be left "standing at the gate!" I got into this today when printing a passport renewal form off the US Dept. of State website...

http://www.icao.int/mrtd/guidance/HistProgress.cfm</font>


This has been a problem for many countries. My friends from France had to get new passports recently to comply.

Improving passport scan standards is a good thing in general. I can understand that it make the US look bad at the moment though.

Yeah it's not just machine readable passports - which was enforced as of 2003. It's passports with digital photographs and fingerprints. As far as I know Aus passports don't have digital photographs nor fingerprints in them.

see - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum109/HTML/007826.html

So watch out if you are coming to the US after October. Either have one of these new passports or you have to get a visa.

Even the UK government is seeking an extension as they cannot possibly issue all those new passports before that date.

I received this in an Email today...

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8347410%5E2,00.html

Correction from my earlier post - apparently the biometric passport requirement is only for passports ISSUED after Oct 26 2004.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum109/HTML/007827.html

So:-
- passport issued before Oct26/04 and VWP country - no visa required
- passport issued after Oct26/04 and VWP country - either biometirc or visa required

Which in a way doesn't make sense in terms of security - most passports are valid for 10 years - therefore it will take 10 years for all non-biometric passports from VWP to disappear - so there will still be a large number of visitors undergoing different treatment and under different rules.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by alect:
Which in a way doesn't make sense in terms of security - most passports are valid for 10 years - therefore it will take 10 years for all non-biometric passports from VWP to disappear - so there will still be a large number of visitors undergoing different treatment and under different rules.</font>
But if you are going to force people to use the new technology, then you gatta start somewhere. Draw a line in the sand and force compliance. If not, then some VWP countries may not make the effort to comply and in 10 tears time they are still no closer to complete compliance.

It is not practical to ask people with a current passport to replace it. But they can ask that all new issues meet the new requirements.

I would point out that Australian citizen travelers to the US have it easy. They can enter under the Visa Waiver Program. US citizen travelers to Australia must obtain a visa, even for a short tourist trip. Perhaps Canberra ought to lead the way in simplifying procedures for travelers?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Imperial Special:
I would point out that Australian citizen travelers to the US have it easy. They can enter under the Visa Waiver Program. US citizen travelers to Australia must obtain a visa, even for a short tourist trip. Perhaps Canberra ought to lead the way in simplifying procedures for travelers?</font>

Incorrect - visitors from the US to Australia do not need a visa, which can only be issued by an Australian mission. They require an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA), which can be issued free of charge by any travel agent using their CRS, or can be obtained over the internet. There is a huge difference between the two, and our system is as simple as it is possible to be whilst still knowing exactly who is on their way.

Dave

Also, if you do happen to want an Aussie visa for some reason (eg my tourist visa lasts for 4 years at a time so I don't even have to think about ETAs), applications at posts like London are simple, straightforward and quick. No appointments, interrogations or such like.

[This message has been edited by Globaliser (edited Jan 09, 2004).]

Thanks for the correction. Called Visa or not, it is still an application to the Australian Government for a travel permit that must be approved before one can travel. Most countries in the Visa Waiver Program do not require such advance travel authority (ETA or visa) from US citizens.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Imperial Special:
Thanks for the correction. Called Visa or not, it is still an application to the Australian Government for a travel permit that must be approved before one can travel. Most countries in the Visa Waiver Program do not require such advance travel authority (ETA or visa) from US citizens.</font>

Actually, I think the US VWP is not a *travel* permit, but an *entry* permit. Semantics aside, I'd have no problem with the US moving to a similar pre-travel entry approval.

Re your comment about simplification, I think each takes the same amount of time to fill in. But the pre-travel requirement makes more sense in two situations:

* it gives the Aust government better warning (longer lead time) of who is coming in. This could help avoid the need to detain planes on the tarmac for "reverse screening".

* by the same token, it probably lowers the risk of being denied entry after flying. (Similar to what happened to that Australian journalist a few months back, although I think it was because she was going to breach the VWP conditions by working as a journalist). I assume that if you will be denied entry, it would be easier to do it at the ETA stage, instead of having to turn someone back after landing

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Imperial Special:
Thanks for the correction. Called Visa or not, it is still an application to the Australian Government for a travel permit that must be approved before one can travel. Most countries in the Visa Waiver Program do not require such advance travel authority (ETA or visa) from US citizens.</font>

Yes - but it is free ! It makes much more sense to do it this way - the idea of it is that immigration check all passengers arriving on a given day, and pull them up at immigration if they need to.