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  • #1

    US Visas and machine readable passports

    The US has been planning on changing the visa waiver programme, as of Oct 1 2003, to insist that anyone with a passport that is not machine readable needs a visa.

    I have just discovered that my passport is not machine readable , so it looks like my trip to the US next week might be up **** creek (there is no way I could get a visa or a new passport in time).

    But, I have found a few articles on the web saying that this has been postponed to Oct 1 2004, e.g. http://www.iht.com/articles/109886.html . Unfortunately these are all unofficial and the official pages, i.e. http://travel.state.gov/vwp.html , all say that it will come into force on Oct 1 2003.

    I also phoned the US consulate here (at $1.30 a minute!!) and they say it is effective from Oct 1 2003 (although despite the extortionate charge they didn't seem to know their arses from their elbows).

    Does anyone know the real deal here?
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  • #2
    As long as you arrive before oct 1 (and dont make side trips out of the country) it wont matter.
    We need seperate human-only games for MP/PBEM that dont include the over-simplifications required to have a good AI
    If any man be thirsty, let him come unto me and drink. Vampire 7:37
    Just one old soldiers opinion. E Tenebris Lux. Pax quaeritur bello.

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    • #3
      I heard it was being postponed, but I'm not sure. Perhaps a little snooping will do?
      Monkey!!!

      Comment

      • #4
        Originally posted by SpencerH
        As long as you arrive before oct 1 (and dont make side trips out of the country) it wont matter.
        I'm not - my flight is on the 4th (how's that for bad planning?).

        Comment

        • #5
          Well, lots of important people seem to think it's postponed. Unless your from Belgium.

          Page not found - Airports Council International - North America
          http://www.aci-na.org/asp/pressdetail.asp?art=792

          Page not found | OBV
          http://www.obv.org.uk/reports/2003/rpt20030909e.html


          Call the US embassy where you are and ask.

          I searched Visa waver program and found lots of .org and .gov ppl saying it's been pushed back to Oct. 1, 2004...
          Monkey!!!

          Comment

          • #6
            Originally posted by Rogan Josh


            I'm not - my flight is on the 4th (how's that for bad planning?).
            You're in Paris arent you? I would think you could get a visitors visa pretty quickly.
            We need seperate human-only games for MP/PBEM that dont include the over-simplifications required to have a good AI
            If any man be thirsty, let him come unto me and drink. Vampire 7:37
            Just one old soldiers opinion. E Tenebris Lux. Pax quaeritur bello.

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: US Visas and machine readable passports

              RJ:

              "there is no way I could get a visa or a new passport in time"

              I looked at the US embassy in Vienna, and they have Oct 1st 2003; the page has been updated late August. Are you sure you can't get a passport from the next UK consulate within time? Here they were usually quite quick when you explained that it was urgent...

              "(although despite the extortionate charge they didn't seem to know their arses from their elbows)."

              I know someone who has worked at the US embassy, according to her they would be prime comedy material.
              “Now we declare… that the law-making power or the first and real effective source of law is the people or the body of citizens or the prevailing part of the people according to its election or its will expressed in general convention by vote, commanding or deciding that something be done or omitted in regard to human civil acts under penalty or temporal punishment….” (Marsilius of Padua, „Defensor Pacis“, AD 1324)

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              • #8
                If all you want is a tourist visa then any EU citizen should be able to get one in less then a day.
                Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

                Comment

                • #9
                  Originally posted by Japher
                  Page not found | OBV
                  http://www.obv.org.uk/reports/2003/rpt20030909e.html
                  That article seems to explain it:

                  The countries are being required to provide a written request to the State Department of their desire to have their citizens exempted from the new rules until next year.
                  ...

                  American officials said the move to postpone enforcement of the rules followed a vigorous debate between the State Department, where senior officials felt that enforcement of the rules had to be delayed to avoid turmoil for foreign travelers, and the Department of Homeland Security, where officials believed that the new passport rules were a valuable antiterrorist tool and needed to be enforced as quickly as possible.

                  The officials said the Department of Homeland Security agreed to the one-year waiver, but only after insisting that the foreign governments provide written assurances of their commitment to ending passport fraud and to introducing machine-readable passports.


                  So it's a bureaucratic turf war, and apparently no one knows whether those "requests" and "assurances" have been given, are sufficient etc. And the embassy people will try to be on the safe side, so they say 2003.
                  “Now we declare… that the law-making power or the first and real effective source of law is the people or the body of citizens or the prevailing part of the people according to its election or its will expressed in general convention by vote, commanding or deciding that something be done or omitted in regard to human civil acts under penalty or temporal punishment….” (Marsilius of Padua, „Defensor Pacis“, AD 1324)

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                  • #10
                    Apparently because of the Patriot act, to get a visa (even a tourist visa) you have to have a personal appointment with US embassy staff. The earliest appointment they have is Nov 11

                    I am fairly sure it has been pushed back - I am now just searching for something official that I can print off the show the customs guards.....

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                    • #11
                      Hmmmm..... the UK passport office (who I just called) tell me that the restriction is in force from Oct 1 2003. What a mess.

                      I' ll try phoning the US embassy in London tomorrow I think. They must know surely.

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                      • #12
                        I' ll try phoning the US embassy in London tomorrow I think. They must know surely.


                        Sorry to laugh at your situation (in your position, I'd be really annoyed), but the chances of a U.S. government outfit actually knowing what it (and any other part of the U.S. government) is doing are akin to being struck by a meteorite.

                        -Arrian
                        grog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!

                        The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.

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                        • #13
                          I can't remember who said this (I think some European), but it might be an accurate description:

                          "American bureaucracy is amazingly friendly, stunningly incompetent and universally hated."
                          “Now we declare… that the law-making power or the first and real effective source of law is the people or the body of citizens or the prevailing part of the people according to its election or its will expressed in general convention by vote, commanding or deciding that something be done or omitted in regard to human civil acts under penalty or temporal punishment….” (Marsilius of Padua, „Defensor Pacis“, AD 1324)

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            We have to recognize that this valuable antiterrorist tool is quite effective in preventing Rogan Josh from entering the States.
                            Statistical anomaly.
                            The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              So here is the official lowdown. We contacted the US State Dept. and they say that officially I will need a visa (or machine readable passport) to enter after 1st Oct 2003. But a decision will be made this week as to whether or not to postpone this by a year to 1st Oct 2004.

                              So basically I have to wait it out and see what happens.

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