Passport & Visa Requirements
Passport Validity
If traveling under the Visa Waiver Program, your passport must be valid for the duration of your stay. If your passport expires before the end of your intended stay you will only be admitted up to that date.
Passports which contain the exception extension stamp extending the validity of the passport for two years are valid for travel to the United States. The stamp reads: "This passport is hereby exceptionally extended valid until (DATE)" and is preceded by either the words "Passport Office", if extended by a U.K. Post Office, or "Passport Office, London", if extended by the Passport Office in either Liverpool, Peterborough, Newport, Glasgow, Belfast or London.
Visas: The Reciprocal Visa Waiver Program allows UK citizens to stay up to 90 days without a visa if they have an onward or return ticket.
From June 26, 2005, all persons traveling under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) must present a machine-readable passport (MRP) to travel to the United States without a visa.
From June 26, 2005 transportation carriers will be fined $3,300 per violation for transporting any Visa Waiver traveler to the U.S. without a machine-readable passport.
Machine-readable passports issued between October 26 2005 and October 25 2006 require a digital photograph printed on the data page.
Biometric Passports - VWP travelers arriving in the U.S. on or after October 26, 2006 with passports issued on or after that date must present a biometric passport or obtain a visa for entry into the United States.
Each person travelling must have their own machine readable passport, this include children travelling with their family.
From September 30th 2004 all UK visitors traveling to the U.S. on a visa and arriving at an air or sea port will have their two index fingers scanned and a digital photograph taken to verify their identity at the port of entry.
Have your first night's hotel address to hand when going through US Immigration. Always treat this process with total seriousness, you can be refused entry or end up in serious trouble for flippant remarks.
Some travelers may not be eligible to enter the United States visa free under the VWP. These include people who have been arrested, even if the arrest did not result in a criminal conviction, those with criminal records, certain serious communicable illnesses, those who have been refused admission into, or have been deported from, the United States, or have previously overstayed on the visa waiver program. Such travelers must apply for special restricted visas . If they attempt to travel without a visa, they may be refused entry into the United States.
Note: Travelers with minor traffic offenses which did not result in an arrest and/or conviction for the offense may travel visa free, provided they are otherwise qualified. If the traffic offense occurred while you were in the United States, and you have an outstanding fine against you or you did not attend your court hearing, it is possible there may be a warrant out for your arrest, and you will experience problems when applying for admission into the U.S. Therefore you should resolve the issue before traveling by contacting the court where you were to appear. If you do not know the address of the court then information is available from the Internet at: www.refdesk.com .