Important information for travelling to USA

USA introduces visa requirement for temporary German passports

Starting 1st May 2006 German citizens require a visa to enter the United States of America if they travel on a German temporay passport.
The government of the United States informed the government of the Federal Republic of Germany just recently about these changes.

Every German citizen who intends to visit the USA after May 2006 should apply for a regular (red) passport valid for 10 years (or 5 years if the applicant is younger than 26 years). The new visa rule does not apply to these passports.

Electronic passports including the digital picture and regular red Passports issued before 1st November 2005 without the chip containing biometric data are still exempted from the new visa rule.

Children’s passports will come under the new visa rule starting 26th October 2006.

The reason for this is the fact that starting with the 26th October 2006 only a passport including machine-readable data and including a chip with biometric data will allow a German bearer to enter America without a visa. Only German e-passports contain a chip with biometric data. It is not intended to issue children’s passports with this kind of chip.

Children’s passports issued before 26th October 2006 will be exempt from the new visa rule. Children’s passport holders can travel without a visa.

Some people are still excluded from the Visa-Waiver-Programme, e.g. those who intend to stay longer than 90 days or who enter the country for work or study purposes. In these cases a visa is always required.

For more information about visa regulations, please visit the Homepage of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/www/de/laenderinfos/sicherheitshinweise.html


For up to date information about the Visa-Waiver-Programm, please visit the Homepage of the American Embassy in Germany:
http://us-botschaft.de/germany-ger/visa/vwinfo.html