Bills have been introduced simultaneously in the US Senate and US Congress to extend the deadline for travellers wishing to use the VWP to hold passports containing biometric identifiers such as fingerprint and iris scans. The deadline has already been extended by a year but the new bills aim to give the 27 countries in the VWP a further year in which to issue their citizens with biometric passports.

America’s National Business Travel Association reports that the US Department of State believes that only three of the 27 countries will have issued biometric passports by the October 2005 deadline. The UK Passport Service says it hopes to start issuing biometric passports by late 2005/early 2006.

Visitors to the country already have to undergo a barrage of other security tests, including having their personal details checked against security databases, being fingerprinted on entry and exit and need to be in possession of a passport capable of being read by a machine.