Reply to: FYI - Travelling to the US after June 26th

Take off is optional - landing is compulsory

And any landing you can walk away from is a good one.

> Already on 2 changes of undies a day just thinking about the flight and avoiding plane crash films

Just remember the first law of aeronautics: Take off is optional - landing is compulsory :b

backtrack

WASHINGTON - Acknowledging international concerns, the United States will revamp its biometric passport requirements to make it easier for foreign travelers from friendly nations to enter the country without a visa, The Associated Press has learned.


The new passport standards — requiring digital photographs to match with a person's unique physical characteristics by October and an embedded identification chip later — would be similar to international biometric guidelines already in place.

The standards take a step back from what the U.S. initially envisioned for biometric passports, but a Homeland Security Department official said Tuesday they represent an "acceptable milestone for now."

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the standards have not yet been announced, said Homeland Security still plans to require expanded biometric data in passports in the future.

But without the revision, visitors from so-called visa-waiver nations that could not meet the stricter standards potentially faced being barred from entering the United States this fall. The Homeland Security official said the department was expected to unveil the new standards soon

Re: USA Flights

"Did you have an Aston Martin "

I was working in North Carolina a few years back and was in a super market when the kid on the checkout asked if I owned an Aston Martin because he sussed I was English. I told him that only poor people drove Aston Martins in England.

I also trained this Mexican guy in our office to shout 'Oi Wankaah' in preparation for his forthcomming trip to London. I told him it was the insiders way to getting served quickly in all English pubs.

Re: USA Flights

Or were you peeling potatoes in the cook house?

Pretty close, and trudging through hot steamy mountains of tulipe - not a nice place!

Re: USA Flights

>> But then again, flew into Belize about 10 years ago and didn't even need a passport.... But that's a different story.

Spod you secret agent, you...Were you licenced to kill? Did you have an Aston Martin and was there a hot babe in Belize. Or were you peeling potatoes in the cook house?

Re: USA Flights

When they say "Machine Readable Passports" do they mean the one's with the printing on the bottom lines of the back(or sometimes next to back) page?

I flew into Malaysia a few years ago and they had passport scanners that read the page and populated the immigration record automatically.

But then again, flew into Belize about 10 years ago and didn't even need a passport.... But that's a different story.

USA Flights

Do you know if this includes travelling to the states en-route to somewhere else...i.e. flying to Miami and transfering to another flight out of US? :\

movies

"In the event of ...... ladies please remove any high heels and everybody to remove any sharp metal objects from their person; such as fragments of red hot engine casing."

Re: movies

That famous line from the emergency briefing....


"In the event of a landing on water..."

PMSL!

movies

> Mr "scared of flying" Cooper

Watch "Airplane" (1 and 2).

Recommend you watch that Twilight Zone episode, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", about the bloke who's scared of flying (played by William Shatner if memory serves).

i Love all of this talk about passports and america and not being able to enter if you haven't got the right type. Especially when i'm due to fly in 3 weeks to said country.

Already on 2 changes of undies a day just thinking about the flight and avoiding plane crash films on TV.

Mr "scared of flying" Cooper

This limited period will end on June 26, 2005. Beginning June 26, 2005, transportation carriers will be fined $3,300, per violation, for transporting any VWP traveller to the United States without a machine-readable passport.

IE. They're not letting you on the plane.

And if your machine readable passport can't be read??