Deadline nearing for high-tech passports
US visitors from the 27 countries that are not required to have visas must have their machine-readable passports by June 26.
Transportation carriers after that time will be fined $3,300 per violation for transporting any traveler from a visa waiver country to the US without a high-tech passport.
Any visa waiver traveler arriving without a machine-readable passport should not anticipate being granted one-time entry into the US, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.
Meanwhile, passports have become an issue in the Caribbean, where visitors are going to be required to have a valid US passport to re-enter the United States. That rule is due to go into effect next January.
But the World Travel and Tourism Council, on behalf of the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), says the move will jeopardize $2.6 billion in visitor export earnings.
“CHA can appreciate US concern for its security, but cannot lose sight of the impact of the new regulations on Caribbean travel and tourism, which will be a permanent realignment of traffic, with spontaneous, last-minute travel significantly reduced,” said CHA President Bertha Parle.
Said Jean-Claude Baumgarten, president of the World Travel and Tourism Council:
“The United States’ new passport requirement for the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada is likely to change the nature of regional travel and tourism, and cause significant hardship for several destinations that have grown to rely on a more open movement of visitors.”
The CHA is asking for an extension until 2008.
The machine-readable passport requirement in the past received an extension from the Department of Homeland Security. There’s a lobbying effort to gain another delay.
Machine-readable passports have a sequence of lines that can be swiped by US Customs & Border Protection officers to quickly confirm the passport holder’s identify.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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