SiobhanP

Folks, I have been reading on the US Embassy website that a person neded a machine readable passport to enter the U.S. (Foreigners I thought). Do I need one as well and do we all have to get the new Bormetric passport by next year. I tend to lose track of these things over here in Ireland. I want to make sure my partner has no trouble coming with me to the states in February. God it all seem so Orwellian these days.

P_M

I would like to read that. Could you please provide a link to that page? Thanks.

Cicerone

Sorry, you are a US citizen? I don't believe you need a machine readable passport to enter the US, nor a Bormetric one if your current passport is still valid. You might check with the US Embassy in Dublin, or take a look at http://travel.state.gov/passport/index.html

I was just in the US in June (live in Swizterland) with my 9.5 year old passport and had no problems.

sandi

If you are carrying a US passport, it will be good until it expires. If another country's passport (your partner), I would check with the Passport Agency of that country and ascertain what they are doing to meet the US requirements.

Scarlett

Hi SiobhanP~
This is where we found out about this passport news...The NY Times..
"By the end of September, tourists from 27 nations, including Britain, Germany, Japan and Australia, will for the first time be photographed and fingerprinted on arrival. And beginning at the end of October, passengers from 22 countries, mostly in Europe, must carry machine-readable passports in order to visit without visas.

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security plan to start advertising in newspapers in Britain and Australia later this month, informing travelers from those countries that airport inspectors here will start collecting digital fingerprints and photographs from them on Sept. 30. "....I believe that if you keep and use your old passport, you will also have to get and use a Visa.
Scarlett

Spygirl

That's correct. Your current US passport is valid until it expires. Your partner's passport however, is a different matter, depending on his citizenship (which I'm assuming is non-US).

If your partner is from one of the 21 European countries under the VWP (Visa Waiver Program), citizens of those countries (including U.K., France, Germany) seeking to enter the US, now have until 10/26/04 to present EITHER a machine readable passport(MRP) w/o a US visa OR a US visa upon entry to the US.

Understand, that the machine-readable passport req. is SEPARATE from the req. for a biometric component to the passport-that req. has been extended for a year, to give countries time to comply. The biometric req. does not apply to the above 10/24/04 date.

Also, starting 9/30, all visitors from VWP countries will be enrolled in the USVISIT program, requiring digital scan and photograph taken upon entry to the US.

goatee

At what point do foreign visitors say "to hell with all this nonsense, let's go to Canada for our holidays instead!"

TopMan

Your current US Passport is ALREADY machine-readable..that's so they can swipe it through the machine when you check in for your flight...and that second passport picture you had taken comes up on the screen.

SiobhanP

Jaysus! It is Orwellian!

Thanks Scarlett for the info that was what I was referring to about the October Deadline. I have to check if the Irish Passport office is issuing these so I can get one for my partner. I can't be bothered with getting a visa and using his old passport. He is going on business for a week in October but will be back before the deadline.

When my passport expires then do I get a biometric one? I assume these have more details etc on them?

It's true I don't know how people coming from europe handle all this! I am very lucky I have both passports.

ira

>Jaysus! It is Orwellian!

Orwellian to require a passport with a bar code?

What I find Orwellian is policeman, carrying automatic weapons, with the power to detain people without probable cause and demand their identification papers.

Shanna

I do believe a terrorist can probably meet the new requirements more easily than the average tourist. And the passport use is the legitimate way to enter the country; these methods do nothing to prevent illegal entry. Treating people like criminals will leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth, regardless of the method used.

Ryan

Shanna,
And using the lives of people who've simply gone to their jobs in an office building as a political statement or children who've gone to school as a bargaining chip is an affront to all mankind.

However, we now live in a world where that is reality. No one is being treated like a criminal.

While I disagree with the Bush Administration on most things, and I'm a Republican, I believe we have to do a better job of tracking who is visiting our country.

You aren't being treated like a criminal. You're being asked for a passport that conforms to current technology and an electronic fingerprint. You aren't being detained, you aren't being interrogated and you aren't subject to further prosecution.

Spygirl

Shanna-there is absolutely no basis whatsoever for your contention that a terrorist can "meet the requirements more easily than the average tourist" that is a flip and factually inaccurate statement. Parts of the more stringent visa requirements have already caught a number of attempted illegal alien entries from countries that are listed state sponsors of terrorism, and have been responsible for a signficant number of alien deport. cases as well.

The measures being enacted under USVISIT are a direct result of the events surrounding the 9/11 attacks-and the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. The simple fact of the matter is, had some of the newer features of the USVISIT program been in place prior to 9/11, had the now-defunct INS been given the resources to do its job properly, a number of the 9/11 hijackers would not have been allowed entry to the US, and/or would have been classified as alien deport. cases, thus making 9/11 a probable non-event.

And do not, in any way, think that the EU and other countries are not initiating their own stepped-up visa requirements and scrutiny of those coming through their ports of entry, because they most assuredly are-but probably to lesser controversy and media coverage than the US requirements are currently receiving.

ira

> I do believe a terrorist can probably meet the new requirements more easily than the average tourist.

Hmmmmmm. On what do you base this belief?

>And the passport use is the legitimate way to enter the country; these methods do nothing to prevent illegal entry.

Of course they do. Many of the 9/11 terrorists had fraudulent passports.

>Treating people like criminals will leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth, regardless of the method used.

How is requiring a bar code on a passport "treating peoplelike criminals"?

BTW, it is not only the US that will require the machine readable passport, it is only that the US wants to do it earlier than other countries.

SiobhanP

Ira I do still feel uncomfortable with having so much of my info available to the government hence the Orwellian comment. I never forget the first time I had to give fingerprints for a banking job in the U.S. I knew I would always be on a sytem after that and it made me a bit uncomfortable. I do realise having the prints could also help me in some situations but its disconcerting to me. I can't believe most of my pals here don't even take drug tests for work let alone get fingerprinted. That will change though I am sure. I hate that the world is a different place after all these acts of terrorism.

I also find that pre- 9/11 there were files kept on immigrants and many of these were made available from the freedom of information act. A lot of the info on these files are inaccurate and I felt a bit racist on ones I have infomation on.

I want us all to be asafe travelliung but when does the info stop and invasion of privacy begin?

God I feel like a subversive at the moment....must read less politcal books!

Tulips

Goatee; they do say that! I've heard quite a few people who do not want to visit the US anymore because of the hassle. Even a change of planes, to fly on to South America or somewhere else, is to be avoided. When you hear stories of people waiting for 4 hours to get through customs in Miami, the decision for a European holiday is easily made!
I still want to visit NY again, though. I've never been fingerprinted in my life, so that will be a first. Do they take the children's fingerprints too? That would probably amuse them more than anything.

mclaurie

So what about a permanent resident alien? My DH is British with a British passport and a US "green card." Does he need a new passport from the UK if we leave/enter the US?

Spygirl

If he is a resident alien, with a valid US visa, then he won't need a machine-readable passport-a MRP is needed in lieu of a US visa.

ezlivin

A Permannet Resident, or Green Card holder, of the U.S. doesn't need any visa to enter or live in the US. A valid Green Card is usually all that is required to enter the US.
It does look like that a passport with MRP is good to have whenever entering the US.

Ryan

You know why we need stepped up requirements and increased use of technology - because things like a person carrying a bagful of Soviet era explosives from Afghanistan via a flight from the UAE to New York still occur.

Had he been a terrorist and not simply an imbecile, we'd be discussing another airline tragedy on these boards today.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/09/15/exp....ap/index.html