Important BUCLD travel info for nationals of countries other than USA, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda
BUCLD
langconf at bu.edu
Tue Oct 4 13:42:08 UTC 2005
DO YOU HAVE A MACHINE-READABLE PASSPORT OR VISA?
The USA has changed its entry procedures as of June 26, 2005 for
nationals of 27 countries (see below) who used to be able to enter the
USA without a visa under the Visa Waiver Program. As of June 26,
nationals from those countries are only able to enter without a visa if
they have a machine-readable passport. If they do not have a
machine-readable passport, they have to obtain a non-immigrant visa for
entry to the USA, from a US consulate or embassy abroad. If you don't
have either (1) a machine-readable passport, or (2) a non-machine
readable passport and a non-immigrant visa to the USA, it looks like
you will not be allowed to board the plane at your point of origin
(there's a $3300 per person fine for any airline that allows someone to
board that doesn't meet these requirements).
The 27 countries are: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei,
Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan,
Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
United Kingdom.
Note that citizens of Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda are not affected by
this regulation - they do not require machine-readable passports to
enter the USA. Nothing is mentioned about citizens of other countries
than these 30 - please check regulations carefully.
Full information on the new regulations is available at:
http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html#2
More information about the Info-childes
mailing list