One of the rants submitted by a reader this weekend has me concerned because later this year I will be travelling to the United States and I would not want to have to experience what David Pickett and his family did on arrival at the airport.
Airport check-in nightmare
David booked the flights online and they found at check-in that his wife’s UK passport was not valid for entry to US because there was no machine readable code at the bottom of the photo page. They had the visa waiver program documentation but were turned away.
He cannot remember reading that the visa waiver program was not sufficient for the type of passport his wife has. The Foreign, Commonwealth Office website does not mention a specific type of passport to enter the US; they just confirm that you need to apply for the visa waiver program via ESTA.
Machine readable passports only
Reading the Visa Waiver program notes, the passport does have to be a machine readable and it shows an image of what one could look like. To me it looks like any other passport, and my UK passport looks familiar
It seems from the digging around I did this evening that if you applied or renewed your passport prior to 26 October 2005 then it’s likely that it will not be machine readable and you might not be able to enter the US. Consulate affairs offers a useful wizard to guide you through the visa waiver process.
Help for consumers
If you are travelling to the US then I would recommend that you contact the UK Identity and Passport Service via its website or helpline to check before booking or travelling because you would not want to ruin your holiday and be turned away at the airport.
As for David and his family, would travel insurance cover them through this scenario, what about credit card protection, surely it’s not fair that they lose the cost of their flight. Any advice for the consumer would be appreciated.
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