The Office of the Governor is notifying persons who travel to the United States of America on British Citizen Passports that, as from October 1, 2003, the Visa Waiver Programme (VWP) will apply only to holders of Machine Readable Passports (MRPs) and children who hold their own MRP.

Holders of non-Machine Readable Passports (non-MRPs) travelling to the USA will therefore need to obtain an MRP or a United States visa. In addition, children on a parent's or sibling's passport will need to obtain a visa, or their own MRP, to travel to the USA.

However, travel between the BVI and the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) is not affected for holders of British Overseas Territory Citizen (BOTC) or BVI Passports, whether they are machine-readable or not.

The USVI authorities will continue to accept holders of non-MRPs and children on a parent's or sibling's BOTC Passport at Cruz Bay, Charlotte Amalie and Christiansted.

A British Citizen MRP has two lines of print on the white strip at the foot of the personal data page at the back of the passport. If there is no white strip, or if the white strip is blank, then the passport is not machine-readable.

All British Citizen passports currently issued in the United Kingdom (UK) and the majority of those issued by British missions overseas are machine-readable, but those issued by the British High Commission in Bridgetown, Barbados, which process routine British Citizen Passport applications from the BVI, are not.

The British High Commission in Barbados will start issuing MRPs from October 20, 2003. In the meantime, for those persons with non-machine readable British Citizen Passports, temporary arrangements have been made with the British High Commission in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago to issue replacement passports.
For additional information, the BVI Passport Office can be contacted at 494-3701 extension 3036.

The decision to require MRPs under the VWP was taken by the United States Government and not by the UK. The Governor’s Office therefore regrets that, for persons requiring new passports, full fees must be paid.

Further information on British Citizen Passports is available from the UK Passport Service website http://www.ukps.gov.uk.

BOTC Passports issued since April 1995 have been machine readable. All British Citizens without MRPs will need to obtain non-immigrant visas from the nearest US Embassy prior to any travel to the mainland USA.

For details on how to apply for a US visa, the US Embassy in Barbados can be contacted at 1-246-228-6340.
Only visa waiver travel is affected. Non-MRPs will continue to be valid for the mainland USA for Transit Without Visa (TWOV) purposes.

For further information on visa requirements and the VWP, the US Embassy website http://www.usembassy.org.uk can be checked.