Britons warned over new passports for US

Last updated at 12:06 25 October 2004


Britons visiting the US are being warned about new passport regulations about to take effect. From tomorrow, all British passport holders, including children, travelling to the US without visas will need their own machine-readable passports.

Practically all UK travellers will already have an MRP, but the new measure will particularly affect children who are currently on a parent's passport.

MRP feature two lines of coded data at the bottom of the photo page that can be swiped at check-in.

If passengers do not have this type of passport then they must go through the time-consuming visa application process.

Jim Forster, British Airways' government and industry affairs manager, said: "We hope that as the UK has been issuing machine readable passports for the past 10 years that most of our UK-based customers will be okay.

"However we believe that many families may fall foul of the new rules as the children have traditionally been placed on their parents' passports rather than having their own. There may also be problems with some UK passports which have been issued at overseas embassies.

"We also have concerns about some European countries which have not been issuing machine readable passports for very long and the impact it may have on those customers who fly to America from mainland Europe via London.

"We are strongly recommending that all of our customers check their passports if they are flying to the US and make sure they either get the appropriate visa or a machine readable passport to make their journey as stress free as possible."

Customers who want more information about the new policies should either visit www.ba.com or http://www.usembassy.org.uk

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