Visa Services

Visitors To The United States Who Have Passports From Visa Waiver Program Countries Must Present Either A Machine-Readable Passport Or A Valid U.S. Visa

Embassy of the United States of America
Maputo, Mozambique
 
Effective October 26, 2004

U.S. law requires that travelers with passports from all 27 Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries present either a machine-readable passport or a valid U.S. visa. This new requirement came into effect on October 26, 2004. Travelers with a valid U.S. visa are not required to have machine-readable passports.
 
In addition, as of September 30, 2004, all VWP travelers arriving at a U.S. port of entry have been required to enroll in US-VISIT, a program involving a digital photograph and fingerscans. In a related item, President Bush recently 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 Program, delaying the requirement until October 2005.
 
The 27 countries participating in the VWP are:
 
Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
 
For complete information on U.S. visa requirements, including studying, doing business or just visiting, please access: http://www.unitedstatesvisas.gov/


To read the complete State Department announcement/statement on Biometric Passports,
please access: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2004/35066.htm


To visit the U.S. Consular homepage, please access: http://travel.state.gov/