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Roughly 80,000 British travellers will not be able to make their planned flights to the USA, as a result of a new American policy that forces those flying to the country to have a biometric passport.
The new legislation deems anyone without a biometric passport ineligible to enter the US, according to a report from The Independent. The news publication estimates that this will mean that roughly 80,000 Brits who had planned to visit the US this year will be denied boarding if they do not make the switch to the new passport. The biometric passport, dubbed the “ePassport”, first came into circulation in 2007 alongside the final released copies of the previous UK passport. It is distinguishable by the rectangular symbol positioned beneath the coat of arms on the front of the passport, which you can see in the image below:
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The passport contains an electronic chip that carries its owners’ personal data, with it now being essential in order to gain entry into the US. The change was implemented in 2015 as part of the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015, though British travelers and holidaymakers are complaining that this new policy wasn’t made clear by UK travel agencies.
In a post that has since been shared over 50,000 times on Facebook, Vic Ryan from Lincoln wrote: “I was supposed to be on a flight this morning travelling to Florida for a holiday with my family booked through Thomson’s, we saved long and hard for this holiday and filled in all the necessary online forms including API and ESTA’s only a couple of weeks ago only to turn up at the check-in desk to be advised that I would not be allowed to travel as I did not have a biometric passport whilst the rest of our family had them, despite calls to the USA from the lady on check in they would not permit travel.”
Those who do not own a biometric passport but are set to travel to the US, therefore need to seek a passport renewal immediately.
