For those of you rushing to obtain new passports for their children currently included on their own passport for travel to the US, the following information has just been received:[:I]
'Plans to introduce tough new requirements for travellers entering the United States, due to start October 1, have been put on hold for twelve months. The new regulations, part of anti-terrorism measures, apply to travellers from Western European and other developed countries including Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Brunei, whose nationals do not require visas to enter the US.
Under the new regulations, travellers must be in possession of machine-readable passports which can be scanned at airports and other points of entry. The postponement has been ordered by the US State Department after it was discovered that some of the 27 countries involved do not have the new-style passports.
To avoid problems at US airports next month, the authorities have informed the countries involved that they now have a further year to make the new identity documents available. One exception to the rule is Belgium, which already enforces its own machine-readable passport rules as part of its security requirements.'
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