[punky]

Basically, there are two different things here; Machine readable passports and biometrics.

Basically, the US wants all visa waiver countries to have machine readable passports, and has done for a long while. The deadline for that has been set at Oct 26th 2004. For most people this isn't a biig deal at all, since all the small red ones are machine readable. The have been produced since 1995 that I know of, so virtually everyone should have one by now. The only change with this is that all children, regardless of age, needs their own Machine Readable passport. (I don't think they can put on their parents one now like the good old days).

Secondly is this dastardly biometrics issue. Basically, they are going to fingerprint (inkless) and photograph everyone coming in. All being well, this shouldn't be much of a hardship as it only takes a min or so, and they do this during routine questioning. Ideally, they also want everyone to have their own biometric passport too. And this is where it gets a bit confusing. The US wants all biometric passports after 26/10/04, but the UKPS alone said this is impossible until mid 2005 at the earliest. Therefore anyone who gets a passport issued between 26/10/04 and the time that Biometric passports get issued, those people will NOT be eligable to travel under the visa waiver program. They will need a visitors visa (B). With those visitors can stay for 6 months at a time (VWP can only stay 3 months) and they last for 10 years. They only take a month of so to get (upto 2 months if you have been denied a visa before, or have a criminal record). Compared to some US visas, they are relatively easy to get, but it is still a major pain in the neck. Not least as it requires a personal interview at the embassy in Grosvenor Square. If you have been issued a passport prior to 26/10/04 then you ARE eligible to travel without a visa under the VWP, so long as it is valid for 6 months beyoind your return.

This is how I understand it anyways. HTH