But they have already announced it and I suspect the info is on the BA website. In fact in the pre-flight email i think BA mention passports / visas etc. So always best to check as things can change at any point.

I would actually say there was no obligation on the US CBP to email anyone today and simply decline people at the airport.

I would say he should be grateful that they did.

10 years for an adult one. My old one, which was not an e-passport, expired in September this year, but I renewed it last month so have a shiny new one precisely so that there was some breathing room for trips.

I have to say that, even as someone who has a higher than average handle on travel and flying compared to Joe Public, and with an upcoming US trip, I didnt know anything about this. Fingers crossed the OPs friend gets it sorted!

Although if you renew a passport early, up to 9 months of the time remaining on an old passport can be added to a new passport. So a passport issued in September 2006 (which would not have been an e-passport) could theoretically be valid until May 2017. There may be quite a lot of people who still have valid non e-passports who are not within 6 months of expiry (the usual "life" needed on passport for entry to a lot of countries).

Surely is issued 9 years ago that would be December 2006 which is after the date when UK Passport Office switched to ePassports (Oct 2006)?

Oh ****!

I didn't know this and I am off to Las Vegas on Sunday. I have a passport issued 26th September 2006 that is not an ePassport. I was going to renew it after this trip.

Looking at the BA website I found details that say:

If you don't have an e-Passport and you are a citizen of a country that joined the Visa Waiver Program prior to 2008, you can still travel without a visa if:
You have a valid passport with a machine-readable zone issued before 26 October 2005, or
If your passport includes a digital photograph and was issued between 26 October 2005 and 25 October 2006.
If your passport was issued on or after 26 October 2006 and it is not an e-Passport, you will need to obtain a visa.

What do they mean by digital photo? Any ideas urgently! I cannot renew my passport in time - IOM has outsourced passport printing to the UK and the minimum is a 5 day service!

Cheers

Manx Flyer (worried!)

This has been discussed in many forums, has been in the British newspapers and on certainly BAs web site

It's up to the individual to ensure they meet the requirements, I'm surprised when they applied for their ESTA they didn't notice thus as well!

They scan the photo you send in and that gets printed in the passport instead of it being stuck in like on previous versions.

Interesting. One of my passports expires next month (issued May 2006) and is an epassport.

I wonder what the rationale was for whether passports were issued with the chip or not back then... different UK offices?

I'm not entirely sure what is the relevance to the BA forum. This has, strictly speaking, nothing to do with BA and is covered in other (more relevant) sections of FT.

Countries change travel requirements frequently and it is always worth double checking on national travel websites. There have been recent changes to entry conditions to the likes of Brazil, Canada, etc. Unfortunately, national authorities are rarely very good at advertising such changes so keeping an eye is really the only way to avoid bad surprises.

Can you get an emergency passport - https://www.gov.im/categories/travel...ncy-passports/ - or is that not chipped?

Seems a bit harsh to be honest - if you're only making the ESTAs valid for 2 years, then probably reasonable not to shift the goal posts on an arbitrary basis in that window!

I believe a digital photo is one that is scanned and printed onto the passport by the UKPA. In other words not an original photo stuck/sealed in the passport.

Unfortunately, in this situation, yes.

Go to your passport photo page. It should be a hard plastic page. On your photo, rub your finger down through the photo through the middle, down between the eyes and to the neck, out to the edge of the photo and the rest of the page. If the photo is embedded into the page as a digital photo you will feel no hump for the photo, it will be totally smooth. If you go left to right, across the eyes, you will feel several light humps, and if you turn it to the light you will see the photo laminate has a kind of watermark embossed over it. However the central band between your eyes will be clear, hence no hump if going top to bottom. Also look sideways on, and see if the photo looks like it was printed at the same time as the rest of the passport, with no edging.

Older passports have a rectangular hump around the photo.

Phew...
 

Technically the IoM used to have their own passport office and still has their own Passport - British Isles (Isle of Man) - where the Lieutenant Governor requires the bearer to pass on behalf of Her Majesty. Mine was the very last non ePassport issued by the IOM office - I picked it up at 11:45 and they closed the office at noon to replace all the equipment to produce the new ones. I needed it urgently as my previous one got washed (not some form of money laundering:D) so I couldn't wait.

However, I have had a good look and my photo is printed on the passport directly, as there are printed security features over and through the image. So it looks like I am good for now.

Better get it replaced as soon as I am back though.

On a side note that means the queue I join at LCY will be longer. The non eGates queue is normally quicker there when I arrive! But I probably win when landing at Heathrow so it all balances out I guess.

Once again, this forums knowledge helps a worried traveller. Thanks.

Cheers

Manx Flyer (not as worried anymore)

I'd be in that camp too. As it happened I lucked out and avoided this bear trap but I could easily have been snared.

My previous ESTA ran out last year so I got a new ESTA last October; it did not mention then anything new coming up or that validity would (effectively) be to 31 March 2016 only.
I then had a window in early March where I thought it good to renew my 'old-style' UK Passport early. Lucky as it turned out. I nipped down to the Passport Office in Victoria and got it done in a day (old one would have expired late August 2016). Thus I got an e-passport and had to get (another!) new ESTA.

I guess if US CBP can send a post fact e-mail to an ESTA holder's e-address on 1 April 2016; they could have sent a pro-active one the day the US actually affirmed this change (which I think was back in January 2016).

Unusually, I didn't see this in Flyertalk at the time which is one of my 'safety blankets' for this sort of stuff, nor is it on my work Travel Portal 'warnings' list.
I did know about it later via a separate thread in BAEC FT on the new Canadian programme.

I would imagine its tough to get next day appointments at UK Passport offices at the moment.