[pct-l] hammer your passport.think again.

[canoeman at qnet.com]

I have a Canadian passport, the new laws do not permit entry into the us with
out the new passports. I was denied entry until my new passport was issued.
thank goodness, my local fed office issued my new machine readable passport in
emergency status..
because of the biometric requirements, the Canadian pictures are very hard to
get right.
you cannot smile, wear glasses, your head must be at certain angle.
no facial expression is allowed no teeth allowed to be showing. no shadows
permitted behind head, on top, sides or chin, or ears. 
Very precise.
the new passports are very complicated.
US passports will be replaced at expiration, all passports issued after deadline
will be biometric. 
non us citizens must have them now.
If the chip is destroyed the passport is invalid.
here is the us state department rules ;

The U.S. version of the biometric passport (sometimes referred to as an
electronic passport) has descriptive data and a digitized passport photo on its
contactless chips, and does not have fingerprint information placed onto the
contactless chip. However, the chip is large enough (64 kilobytes) for
inclusion of biometric identifiers. The U.S. Department of State now issues
biometric passports only. Non-biometric passports are valid until their
expiration dates. [38]

Although a system able to perform a facial-recognition match between the bearer
and his or her image stored on the contact-less chip is desired.

A high level of security became a priority for the United States after the
attacks of September 11, 2001. High security required cracking down on
counterfeit passports. In October 2004, the production stages of this high-tech
passport commenced as the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) issued awards
to the top bidders of the program. The awards totaled to roughly $1,000,000 for
startup, development, and testing. The driving force of the initiative is the
U.S. Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 (also known as
the "Border Security Act"), which states that such smartcard Identity cards
will be able to replace visas. As for foreigners traveling to the U.S., if they
wish to enter U.S. visa-free under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), they are now
required to possess machine-readable passports that comply with international
standards. Additionally, for travelers holding a valid passport issued on or
after October 26, 2006, such a passport must be a biometric passport if used to
enter the U.S. visa-free under the VWP.

 canoeman

 
Quoting Bob Bankhead <wandering_bob at comcast.net>:

> Where is it written that current, valid, non-chipbearing US passports must be
> re-placed in order to be valid for international travel?
> > I can understand making the change-over as each old style PP expires, but
to
> suddenly switch all existing PPs to the electronic version would so overwhelm
> the agency that they'd need years to finish the job.
> 
> toyed the passport is invalid