General InformationPassport Requirements for Travelers under the Visa Waiver Program | ||
Important Notice: International travelers, who are nationals of Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries, seeking to travel to the United States without a visa, should review this important information on passport requirements for travelers under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). All VWP travelers, regardless of age or type of passport used, must present individual machine-readable passports. In addition, depending on when VWP travelers’ passports were issued, other passport requirements apply: Visa Free travelers entering the United States require individual machine-readable passports and depending on when the passport was issued, e-passport with an electronic chip. It is important to note that families require individual passports for each traveler, including infants, should they wish to travel visa free. Machine-readable passports typically have biodata for only one traveler in the machine-readable zone. Based on this, families may be denied visa free entry into the United States if the biodata for only one traveler is machine-readable. Travelers not in possession of machine-readable passports will require either B-1 (business) or B-2 (tourist) visas, or a combination of both (B1/B2). Follow link to How To Apply For A Visa on this site. How do I know if I have a machine-readable passport?Travelers should look at the bottom of their passport [the photo page] for two lines that are typeface lines, that have letters, numbers and hatch marks." The two lines at the bottom of a machine-readable passport, for example, would look like the following:LINE 1: P COUNTRY LAST NAME << FIRST NAME < MIDDLE NAME <<<<< LINE 2: PASSPORT NUMBER COUNTRY DOB<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Machine-readable passports allow data in the passport to be scanned automatically by a machine. The two lines of printed OCR-B machine-readable data (circled in red in the image of a U.S. machine-readable passport shown above) are the most noticeable features of a machine-readable passport. If you are in any doubt as to whether or not your passport is a machine-readable passport, you should check with the passport issuing authority of your country. All VWP travelers, regardless of age or type of passport used, must present machine-readable passports; previous one-time exemptions for first-time VWP travelers without MRPs ended June 26, 2005. In addition, depending on when VWP travelers’ passports were issued, other passport requirements also apply:
Temporary, emergency, official and diplomatic passports are exempted from biometric digital photo and chip requirements, but must be machine-readable. Note that German temporary or emergency passports are not included in this biometric e-passport exemption.. Therefore, holders of German temporary or emergency passports must either obtain a valid, machine-readable regular German passport for VWP travel or apply for a U.S. visa to travel to or through the United States. Visit the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website for more information.
Visit the Department of State's Consular Affairs website for further information about visa free travel and machine readable passports. |





