US Immigration defers oct 26th 04 rule till 05

[danandjackie]

can someone correct me if im wrong but does this mean one should work out if its cheaper over the next 12 months to renew your passport regardless of its expiry date rather than have to pay for a visa in oct 2005 or do you think this is an indication the rule is being scrapped..

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

The UK will be bringing in Biometric Passports eventually, All it means as i read it, is that after the new date any one renewing their passport will have to have a biometric version whilst as now, until your passport expires it will be accepted by US customs.
You can renew your passport up to nine months from the date of expirary, at least I think so.

 

[Celestine]

You can renew your passport whenever you like, but you will only be credited with up to 9 months. We did this last year when the rule was originally coming in as we didn't have machine readable passports (although still had 7 years to expiry), but then they delayed implementation, but at least we're now OK for another 9 years! It was cheaper to renew than to get visas for all of us if that helps anyone.

 

[Hilary]

I'd be inclined to hang fire for a while if your passports don't expire before Oct 05.

If there are no apparent rumblings about moving the goalposts for biometric information nearer that date, you could make your decision then. We had three passports due for renewal before Oct 05, so we'll be renewing all of them anyway, but we're waiting to see what happens before deciding on whether or not to renew DD's, as she has a couple of years left on it.

In answer to your question, as Celestine has said, it's going to be cheaper to pay £43(?) for a new passport than £75 (?) plus the additional time and expense of going to collect a visa. (Sorry, these figures may not be accurate, but it's a guess!)