The Use of Machine Readable Passports for the Visa Waiver Program

Real Audio of Briefing

MR. DENIG: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center. Welcome, also, to journalists in our New York and Los Angeles Foreign Press Centers. We're delighted that you would join us on this day, a very nice day in the summer, but the topic is quite important and will affect a lot of people.

The topic is the use of machine-readable passports for the Visa Waiver Program. And here to discuss this issue with us today is Lisa Piascik, the Director of the Office of Public and Diplomatic Liaison in the Visa Office of the Bureau of Consular Affairs in the State Department. Lisa will have an opening statement to make, and after that she'll be delighted to take your questions.

Lisa.

MS. PIASCIK: Thank you. Thank you and good afternoon. I'm going to use some of the acronyms that we use in talking about the Visa Waiver Program and the machine-readable passports, and then hopefully that'll leave some time for you to ask questions.

We refer to the Visa Waiver Program, as some of you probably know, as the VWP. We also call machine-readable passports MRPs, so I will use those terms. If you get confused, let me know and I will go back and repeat them.

To begin with, I want to say that in order to qualify for the Visa Waiver Program, countries have to certify that they have a machine-readable program in place or they have a program to do so. Countries have had over a decade to begin producing the MRPs.

When the Visa Waiver Program became permanent in 2000 -- before that it was a pilot program -- one of the requirements was that VWP travelers present MRPs for travel to the United States by October 1, 2007. This requirement was codified under our Immigration and Nationality Act.

The USA Patriot Act, which was signed by President Bush on October 26, 2001, advanced that date from October 1, 2007 to October 1, 2003, and that was the requirement that an MRP had to be presented in connection with VWP travel from that date.

I just want to say as an aside that earlier this year, the MRP date for Belgium was established as May 15 of this year.

In late December 2001, our embassies in VWP countries were instructed to advise host governments of these requirements. In late August 2002, we asked our embassies to provide quite detailed information about the MRP programs in place in VWP countries. And in order to provide that information, most embassies did have to consult with their host governments because the requirements were quite detailed.

Last month, our embassies in VWP countries were instructed to remind host governments of this requirement and our embassies and consulates in non-VWP countries, especially those in which there are large populations of VWP nationals, were also instructed to approach VWP embassies to discuss this requirement.

We've also worked closely, both here in Washington and our posts abroad, with the travel, business and with the travel industry, particularly the airlines, in order to apprise them of this requirement.

Why are we stressing the requirement for a machine-readable passport? Machine-readable passports are much more secure than the non-machine-readable passports. They improve document security by making the check-in process much faster. MRPs allow for automatic checking of databases. They allow for easier transmission of passenger information from airlines back to the United States and they can speed up processing once travelers actually arrive back here in the United States.

Most of the VWP countries began issuing MRPs in the early 1990s, so we don't think that most VWP travelers will have much difficulty complying with the new requirement. Those VWP travelers who don't have MRPs will have to obtain a visa.

We believe that most VWP travelers, if they don't already have an MRP, will choose to obtain one since in many instances the cost of doing so will be less than the cost of applying for a non-immigrant visa. The visa application fee is $100, so in many countries the passport fee may very well be less than that.

We believe that citizens of VWP countries who don't have the option of obtaining a machine-readable passport will go ahead and apply for a visa, and we have instructed our embassies to accept those applications and to process them judiciously. Likewise, if the VWP countries develop backlogs in processing passport applications, a traveler would have to apply for a visa.

I want to say that it's not necessary for travelers to have MRPs by October 1st, only those who wish to travel to the United States on that day. This should be a substantially smaller number than the total number of non-MRPs in circulation. I would like to add, also, that October, as you probably know, is an off-peak travel time so we think that travelers should have plenty of time either to obtain an MRP or to obtain a visa if they want to enter the United States visa-free in the next couple of months.

In case you have any questions about what exactly an MRP is, we have a little mock-up of a passport here. The machine-readable part of the passport is actually the bottom two lines. It's not a bar code. It's not a chip. Those two lines incorporate biographic data about the traveler that appears on the page of the passport.

So, I would be happy to take any questions that you have.

MR. DENIG: Okay. Please use the microphone and identify yourself and your news organization. We'll start with the lady up front here. Just let me get you the microphone.

QUESTION: Ans Baumans, I'm from the Netherlands Press Association. I have a very practical question. In the Netherlands, lots of children traveling with their mothers or fathers are written into the passport of their parent. Will that be allowed after October 1?

MS. PIASCIK: No. Each VWP traveler will have to have their own machine-readable passport. The reason for doing so is that the MRP, the machine-readable part of the passport, only includes information about the principal traveler. It doesn't include information about dependents that are included on the passport, so not to require a machine-readable passport for children would defeat the purpose of having a machine-readable passport in the first place.

MR. DENIG: Next question. The lady in the back.

QUESTION: I just have a follow-up. Gruenwald, Austria Press Agency. I have, actually, a follow-up question to the children issue. So a child which is in the passport of the mother or the father registers needs an own visa or an own passport?

MS. PIASCIK: Either one. The parent will either have to obtain a machine-readable passport for the child and then the child would be allowed to enter without a visa or the parent would have to obtain a non-immigrant visa for the child.

QUESTION: Even if it's registered in the passport of the mother?

MS. PIASCIK: Yes.

QUESTION: And what happens if somebody doesn't read our news and doesn't know it and goes to the airport in Vienna, let's say, or in Amsterdam, and has a paid flight to New York and doesn't fulfill this requirements. What happens then?

MS. PIASCIK: Well, we're undertaking an effort now to get the word out so that people do have plenty of time to either get an MRP or apply for a visa. We're working with the airline industry so that they would know these requirements. They are already aware of them so that if somebody showed up without either a visa or an MRP the airline people would be able to inform them that there may be a problem at the port of entry.

If, for some reason, that person arrived at the port of entry, they could, presumably, be denied entry into the United States by the Department of Homeland Security because they are not in possession of correct travel documents.

QUESTION: So it's too late when you arrive at JFK, at the New York airport, and then at the Immigration or Border Control you find it out that there is a problem? Then it's too late to apply there for a visa?

MS. PIASCIK: Visas are only issued overseas by consular officers. The Department of Homeland Security has immigration inspectors at the port of entry and they're responsible for determining if a person gets into the United States and how long they can actually remain. But we don't have a system whereby visas are issued at the port of entry.

QUESTION: When people apply for -- they'll try to buy a ticket from either an American or foreign airline from now through October, will they be informed at that point by the airline that they will need machine-readable passports?

MS. PIASCIK: We're working with the airline industry and we believe they'll do their best to publicize this, too. How they're going to do it, I'm not exactly sure. But we're doing our best to get the word out so that everyone sees this. We're going to be posting this information on our website. It will probably be posted on most of our embassies' websites. We're doing events such as this. We're talking to VWP governments. We're getting the word out to cruise lines, other people in the travel industry, not just the airlines, so that they know.

QUESTION: Patrick Jarreau, Le Monde, France. And it's a strange question to ask to you, but do you know if the European passport which was delivered to the members of the EU is now, and for how long, machine-readable?

MS. PIASCIK: Yes. I don't want to really go into detail about what is, but the EU passports are issued by the passport authorities in each country, and those are machine-readable.

QUESTION: Okay, thank you.

QUESTION: So how many people from Belgium have been sent back from ports of entries here in the United States?

MS. PIASCIK: I don't know. I did read an article in the press about a Belgian lady who was turned around at -- I believe it was Los Angeles Airport --

QUESTION: JFK.

MS. PIASCIK: JFK? A few weeks ago, but we've had no indication that any other Belgian travelers have had any difficulty at ports of entry.

QUESTION: Okay. And which countries are the ones that you have now problems with because they still have passports that are not machine-readable?

MS. PIASCIK: I think at this point just about every VWP country is issuing machine-readable passports.

QUESTION: All of them for five years.

MS. PIASCIK: Well, some of them are still valid. They were issued, you know, a certain amount of time ago and the validity period is either five or ten years, so the passport may or may not be machine-readable if it was issued before the country started issuing machine-readable passports. And also, I know some countries will issue machine-readable passports in that country, but that if it's issued by a consular post overseas, it may not be machine-readable.

QUESTION: So if I want to warn -- I know that in the Netherlands everyone had a machine-readable passport, but there are lots of people living there who are Spanish or Austrian or French. And if I want to warn them, you know, have a good look at your passport, which people do I have to warn? I mean, which people would be in the risk groups, like Spanish people or Italians or French or --

MS. PIASCIK: I think it's best to leave that up to that VWP country to determine which groups of people need to be targeted.

QUESTION: You know that, don't you? You know which countries still have passports?

MS. PIASCIK: We know when countries started issuing machine-readable passports and we know that some countries seem to be in a stronger position. You know, for example, Australia began issuing machine-readable passports quite some time ago so they have only a very small percentage, if any at all, that are not machine-readable passports. Other countries may have issued, within the past five to ten years, so there may still be valid passports out there.

If you're asking for a specific figure, I don't have that information.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. DENIG: Next question. The lady in the back again.

QUESTION: I have -- I, personally, I have a non-machine-readable passport because it was issued before Austria joined the European Union and its validation, it expires in two years. So I couldn't travel with this passport any more here?

Second question --

MS. PIASCIK: Can I answer your first question first?

QUESTION: No, second -- yeah, second question is in this passport there is a journalist visa which is machine-readable. So can I enter with --

MS. PIASCIK: Let me backtrack and answer your first question first. The Visa Waiver Program only covers travel which is considered tourist or general business travel. It would be equivalent to our B1/B2 visa. Under the terms of the VWP, the traveler can only be coming for 90 days or less and can't engage in any kind of substantive work at all.

So the Visa Waiver Program only covers that kind of travel. If you were coming here on tourism or just for business consultations you could enter under the Visa Waiver Program now. After October 1st, you would need a machine-readable passport to do that, and you could do that without a visa.

However, as a journalist, you're working in the United States. It's not an area that's covered under the Visa Waiver Program, so you would need an I visa to do that. And if you need a visa, you don't need a machine-readable passport to come in to the United States.

Is that clear? So you, you're a journalist?

QUESTION: (inaudible)

MS. PIASCEK: The visa is machine-readable, yes. We would like everything to be machine-readable eventually. But yes, if you were planning on coming to the United States and working as a journalist, you could not enter under the Visa Waiver Program. You would need a visa.

QUESTION: (Off mike.) somehow, if she asked who -- for whom this will apply, because Netherlands is already such a long time in the European Union. But new members which -- I mean, passports are valid for ten years, and Austria joined the European Union less than ten years ago, so it applies also to European Union members.

MS. PIASCEK: No. The Visa Waiver Program does not apply to the European Union as an entity. It's an agreement we've worked out with individual countries. There are countries in the Visa Waiver Program that aren't members of the European Union -- Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia among them. So being a member of the European Union does not automatically qualify a country for participation in the Visa Waiver Program. There's a certification process that has to be satisfied and there are some legal requirements that have to be satisfied.

QUESTION: And how long, again, are these requirements enough? When is this going to change in the -- you know, when you need -- with some thing you need some more, like biometrical things?

MS. PIASCEK: Yes. The Patriot Act, which was passed in October 2001, requires VWP travelers to present a machine-readable passport by October 1st, 2003. The Enhanced Border Security Act, which was passed in early 2002, requires VWP country travelers to present a passport that incorporates a biometric standard if that passport was issued after October 26, 2004.

I know that's very confusing so let me backtrack on that. The Enhanced Border Security Act requires that if a VWP traveler has a passport issued on or after October 26, 2004, that passport has to incorporate biometric standards that are determined by the International Civil Aeronautics Organization.

QUESTION: And how far are countries with that?

MS. PIASCEK: Well, ICAO, just about a month, maybe six weeks ago, decided that the standard would be a facial standard, but that countries would also have the option of including fingerprints or iris scans. Actually, I think I have some information here if you're interested in looking. Yes, at www.icao.int, you should be able to find, you know, more information about the biometric standards.

QUESTION: Could you repeat the website, please?

MS. PIASCEK: Yeah, www.icao.int.

QUESTION: The biometrics will only be required in new passports being issued in 2004?

MS. PIASCEK: Yes.

QUESTION: As of what date?

MS. PIASCEK: October 26.

QUESTION: After a passport is issued, which will be issued after October 2006 --

MS. PIASCEK: 2004.

QUESTION: 2004?

MS. PIASCEK: October 26, 2004. Yes. So if a person wants to enter visa-free into the United States under the visa waiver program, and their passport is issued, say, November 1st, 2004, that passport has to incorporate biometric standards.

QUESTION: And biometric standard is a fingerprint or an iris scan?

MS. PIASCEK: Well, ICAO has recently set the standards for passports to be a facial photo, and exactly what those standards are will be defined in the website that I gave you and how they're incorporated into the passport.

QUESTION: (Off mike.)

MS. PIASCEK: Yeah, it is. But it may not necessarily meet the biometric standards. You know, for example, photos can -- you know, the photo can face different ways. Some countries now will issue a photo of a side view of the face that includes an ear, and other countries will issue, as we do, a photo where the face is looking straight forward.

QUESTION: And after this date, if you have a passport, on the passport you still can enter?

MS. PIASCEK: Yes.

MR. DENIG: All right. Any further questions?

(No response.)

MR. DENIG: In that case, Lisa, thank you very much.

MS. PIASCEK: Thank you.