Dear readers:

Find further below an important press release from the US State Department.
Be informed that with effect from 1st October 2003, ALL European Union
citizens (EU passport holders), or all citizens of the 27 member countries
of the visa waiver programme will be required to enter the USA on MACHINE
READABLE PASSPORTS.

Therefore, those EU passport holders whose passports are not machine
readable will be required to obtain a non immigrant visa, in order to visit
the USA for up to 3 months.

Presently, EU passport holders do not need a visa to enter the USA for
visits up to 3 months, but from 1st October 2003, only EU passports that are
machine readable will be allowed to enter the USA without visa. This new
development will not however affect United Kingdom passports because they
are already machine readable. In fact, since 1988, the UK has been issuing
machine readable passports to its citizens.

Ebrima Ceesay

___________________________________________________________________

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE US STATE DEPARTMENT

Effective October 1, 2003, any non-US citizen wishing to enter the U.S.
under the Visa Waiver Program must be in possession of a valid
machine-readable passport, including bearers of diplomatic or official
passports.  Non-US citizens who do not possess a machine-readable passport
must have a valid U.S. visa in their passport in order to enter the country.
  For Belgian passports the new requirements became effective on 15 May
2003.

A traveler who uses a non-machine-readable passport, even if from a Visa
Waiver Program country, will have to apply for and receive a non-immigrant
visa at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate.  The worldwide US-visa application fee
is $100 US.  The U.S. non-immigrant visa contains machine-readable
biographical data.

A machine-readable passport has biographical data entered on the data page
according to international specifications. A machine-readable passport can
generally be identified by the presence of two typeface lines printed at the
bottom of the biographical page that can be read by machine.  These lines
electronically provide some of the information contained on the upper part
of the biographical page.  The size of the passport and photograph, and
arrangement of data fields, especially the two lines of printed
machine-readable data at the edge of the page, meet the standards of the
International Civil Aviation Organization.

Machine-readable passports enhance security as they can be scanned at entry
and exit points  to verify the integrity of the passport data.  Because
machine-readable passports facilitate rapid and precise identification, they
enable faster processing of travelers at ports of entry.  They also provide
for advance passenger information, so border inspectors can do much of their
processing before a flight arrives.

This new requirement results from amendments to the USA Patriot Act of 2001
and will affect only Visa Waiver travel.

Twenty-seven countries currently participate in the Visa Waiver Program:
Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

The new requirements will apply to all passport categories, including
diplomatic and official passports. Visa applicants at U.S. consular
sections, however, are not required to obtain machine-readable passports,
regardless of the visa category being sought.

Families and groups should obtain an individual passport for each traveler,
including infants. Machine Readable Passports typically have biodata for
only one traveler in the machine readable zone, and families may be denied
visa-free entry if the biodata for only one traveler is machine-readable.

Non-machine readable passports remain valid for Transit Without Visa
purposes. Transit Without Visa travelers are not admitted in the U.S. for
tourism and business purposes, as is the case with Visa Waiver Program,
therefore they will not require machine-readable passports.

For more information please see the State Department Internet site:
http://travel.state.gov/vwp.html

_________________________________________________________________
Find a cheaper internet access deal - choose one to suit you.
http://www.msn.co.uk/internetaccess

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~