September 15, 2003. As the October 1, 2003 deadline rapidly approaches, State Department officials have announced that VWP countries have been issued instructions on how to request a one-year waiver from the machine-readable passport requirement, making the requirement effective October 1, 2004. The request will then be considered by the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, who will review the country's commitment to meeting the delayed deadline, and other procedures to prevent fraudulent passport usage.

All of the current visa waiver countries except for Belgium are eligible to request the waiver. A decision requiring Belgium's VWP program eligibility was already made this February. The list of Visa Waiver countries includes: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Unless the U.S. Secretary of State grants a one-year waiver to a particular country, as of October 1, 2003, only Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) will be accepted for U.S. entry under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). Citizens of countries participating in the VWP are eligible to apply for temporary visitor entry to the United States for periods of up to 90 days, without having to first obtain a "B-1" or "B-2" visitor's visa from a U.S. Consulate abroad. In addition, we have been advised that each individual, regardless of age, must be in possession of his or her own machine-readable passport. This essentially means that a parent's passport that contains the names of a child (or children) will no longer be valid for the visa waiver application of the child. If individuals are unable to obtain a Machine Readable Passport, they will need to apply for a visitor classification (B-1/B-2) Machine Readable Visa (MRV) from a U.S. consulate abroad. Full details of the new VWP requirements may be found at the VWP website: http://travel.state.gov/vwp.html.