The United States will conditionally postpone for a year again until Oct. 26 next year its requirement that those entering the country on a visa waiver program carry biometric passports, the Homeland Security Department said Wednesday.
But it will require all visa waiver countries to produce passports with digital photographs by Oct. 26 this year and to present an acceptable plan by that date to begin issuing full biometric passports within a year, the department said.
While the United States had delayed its original deadline for a year from Oct. 26 last year, Japan and many other countries had been urging Washington to postpone it again due to technical problems in preparing biometric passports, which incorporate microchips.
Japan and many other countries already use digital photos in their passports.
In an interim measure announced last month, the United States will require all visa waiver visitors to hold machine-readable passports from June 26 and will fine airline carriers $3,300 per violation for transporting travelers without them.
The department said valid passports issued before Oct. 26 without digital photographs will still be accepted for visa waiver travel, provided the passports are machine readable.
Otherwise, travelers are required to obtain a visa.
''The electronic passport is the path to secure and streamlined travel among visa waiver program countries,'' Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a statement.
Currently, the United States exempts citizens from 27 countries, including Japan, from the need for a visa under the waiver program. About 15 million visa waiver travelers came to the United States last year.
Washington is also taking steps to combat false documents by mandating visa waiver countries to report lost and stolen passports to Interpol and the department.
''The ability to cross our borders using false documents and violate our immigration laws without detection is a real problem,'' Elaine Dezenski, acting assistant secretary of homeland security for policy and planning, said at a press conference.
Digital photos will make ''it easier to verify whether the individual presenting that passport is the same person to whom it was issued,'' Dezenski said.
''Biometrics are a way forward to enhancing security by helping us to deprive potential terrorists of a tool they can use to threaten our country and other countries around the world,'' she said.
In an effort to boost security since the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. Congress passed the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002, including the biometric data requirements.
