Under pressure from European governments, the US has extended the deadline for countries to issue biometric passports by a year.
The delay comes after European Union countries said they needed more time to introduce the new technology, which includes fingerprints and other personal data. The original deadline was October 26 this year.
The move means British holidaymakers will not have to visit the US embassy for face-to-face interviews to obtain a visa.
The extension of the deadline to October 26, 2006 will apply to 27 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Japan. Initially, the US insisted that all new passports issued after October this year should be biometric, or a visa would be required.
More: telegraph.co.uk
Related Travel Information
Alleged gang rape victim Mukhtaran Mai has said that government has promised to return her passport, however she said she had no plans to travel abroad yet.
In an interview to a Uk based news agency here on Wednesday Mukhtaran MAI said she had met special advisor to the Prime Minister, Nilofer Bakhtiyar who promised that her passport would be returned while district government had also been directed for the return of the passport.
Mukhtaran Mai told that her passport was taken on her arrival in Islamabad. She further said that despite return of the passport, she had no plan
The sun is shining and the time has come for families to plan their summer vacations.
Soon, those traveling abroad may have to invest in something they might not have planned on -- a passport.
Jim Driscoll, with Fay-West Travel in Connellsville, said that beginning in December, anyone traveling by air or sea to Bermuda, the Caribbean and Central or South Americas, will have to get a passport.
Currently, a person must acquire a passport if they plan to travel to Europe or anywhere in the eastern hemisphere. However, those traveling to anywhere in the western hemisphere, mainly the Americas,
The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) applauded today's announcement by the Administration concerning the biometric passport requirement for Visa Waiver Program (VWP) travelers entering the United States.
“This announcement means millions of overseas visitors from our biggest markets can continue to travel here visa-free,” said Roger J. Dow, TIA’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “This is critical to our nation’s economy, our diplomatic efforts with key allies and it helps to enhance our image abroad. The ‘welcome mat’ is indeed still out for all visitors.”
TIA, along with dozens of other travel organizations and individual travel companies, has been lobbying aggressively
A Pakistani woman gangraped in 2002 on the orders of a village council said today the government had promised to return her passport but she has no immediate plans to travel abroad.
The case of Mukhtaran Mai provoked a national outcry and focused international attention on the treatment of women in rural Pakistan.
Human rights workers had wanted Mai to go abroad to speak on the plight of women but the government, saying it was acting in the interests of her security, recently banned her from overseas travel.
Following protests, the ban was lifted last week but Mai said today she had still
Stolt Offshore S.A. has been awarded a contract valued at $36 million by Vietnamese state oil company Petro Vietnam Exploration and Production for the Dai Hung Field Extension, offshore Vietnam.
The contract is for the engineering, procurement, construction and installation work associated with block 05-1a offshore Vietnam. The field extension, in water depths of 120 m, comprises 18 km of NKT flexible flowlines and risers, 9 km of combined service umbilicals and two mid-depth buoys and ties back five new wells to the existing Dai Hung floating production unit. Offshore installation is scheduled to take place during summer 2006.
Source: ogj.pennnet.com
