§ Mr. Bill O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when biometric passports will be available to British passport holders to allow entry into the US under the visa waiver scheme; and if he will make a statement. [186367]
§ Mr. BrowneUS Congress have recently approved legislation which extends the target date by which participating members of the US visa waiver scheme should be producing biometric passports to October 2005. British citizens will be able to travel to the States under current arrangements until that date provided they hold machine readable passports.
It is planned to commence the introduction of biometric enabled British Passports in late 2005.