Brussels, 27/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - France and Italy will fail to meet a deadline set for Wednesday 26 October by the US requiring European and other 'visa-waiver' countries to issue new passports with embedded digital photographs.
The new French digital passports will not be available until the end of the year in Paris, and the first half of next year in the rest of the country, explains the French foreign ministry. Digital passports will not be available in Italy until April 2006. People issued 'Delphine' passports (with machine-readable codes) before Wednesday 26 October 2005 will be able to travel to the United States under the US visa-waiver scheme for a further 12 months. As from today, people with other types of passport will have to apply for a visa. As part of its counter-terrorism measures, Washington requires all passports issued in 27 visa-waiver countries from 26 October 2005 onwards to have embedded digital photographs. Such passports have been compulsory for US citizens since the 2002 border security law, imposed after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. The twenty-seven visa-waiver countries include fifteen EU Member States. In June 2005, the United States agreed to postpone the original December 2004 deadline again.