Is the United States going to extend the deadline requiring biometric passports?
– Only the U.S. Congress may extend the legally mandated deadline requiring VWP travelers to have biometrics included in passports issued on or after October 26, 2004. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge have requested an extension of that deadline for two years. We will not speculate as to whether Congress will extend the deadline for VWP countries to issue biometric passports. Q. What is a machine-readable passport? – Machine-readable passports have two optical character, typeface lines at the bottom of the biographic page of the passport (underneath the picture). These two lines, when read by machine, reflect the same information, including the name, date and place of birth of the traveler, as the photo page of the passport. Q. What is a biometric passport? – Biometric technology uses fixed human traits, such as facial features, finger and iris scans, to verify the identity of an individual. The International Civil Aviation Organiza
