United States passport

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United States passports are issued to citizens and nationals of the United States of America for the purpose of international travel. They entitle the bearer to the protection of US consular officials overseas. Responsibility for their issuance lies with the Passport Services of the Bureau of Consular Affairs within the Department of State, which has numerous acceptance agencies and agents [1]. For citizens abroad, passport applications are forwarded back to a passport center by the local US embassy or consulate.

Contents 1 History 2 Types of Passports 2.1 No "lookalike" U.S. passports 3 Physical Appearance 3.1 Passport Note 3.2 Languages 4 United States biometric passports 5 Visa-free Access for Personal US Passports (blue cover) 5.1 Asia 5.2 Europe 5.3 Americas 5.4 Africa 5.5 Oceania 6 Sources

[edit] History

American consular officials issued travel documents to citizens of the thirteen colonies in rebellion during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) in the name of the Department of Foreign Affairs (later renamed). They were simple one-sided sheets with a description of the holder and were valid for three to six months. The minister to France, Benjamin Franklin, based the design issued by his mission on that of the French passport (Lloyd, pp. 71-72).

During this formative period, there was still much overlapping of authority and passports were issued by city, state and national level authorities. The confusion such breaches of propriety caused abroad, with some European states refusing to recognize municipally issued passports unless consular officials overseas endorsed them, led Congress in 1856 to give the Department of State the sole right to issue passports, for a moderate fee at the time, $1 (Lloyd, pp 80-81).

In 1926, following several League of Nations meetings on the standardization of passports, the United States, which was not a member state, introduced the type III passport, which had a stiff red cover with a window cutout for the document’s number to be visible. It contained a total of 32 pages (Lloyd, p. 130).

U.S. passports had green covers from 1941 until 1976, when the cover was changed to blue as part of the U.S. bicentennial celebration.

In 1981, the US became the first country to introduce a machine-readable passport (Lloyd, p. 155).

Green covers were again issued from April 1993 until March 1994 and included a special one-page tribute to Benjamin Franklin in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Consular Service. Since U.S. personal passports are valid for a maximum of 10 years, all of these passports are now expired.

In 2002, the US Department of State started issuing passports with digital photos.

In fiscal year 2005, the Department of State issued 10,123,424 passports.[2]

On August 14, 2006, the Department of State's Colorado Passport Agency began issuing electronic passports, which contain a computer chip in the cover (located under the words "United States of America") that will allow for scanning by remote sensors; it is anticipated this will speed up immigration processing. Privacy concerns remain, as some are concerned that there could be illicit reception of the personal information contained on the chip. Though the State Department says all passport agencies will use the chip in all new personal passports by the end of 2006, other sources expect it will be mid-2007 before all newly-issued passports will have this feature. [3] [4] [5] [6] Non-electronic passports will remain valid until they expire, whether issued before or during the transition.

[edit] Types of Passports

Diplomatic (black cover)

Issued to American diplomats accredited overseas, or to those who reside in the United States but frequently travel abroad for diplomatic work.

Official (maroon cover)

Available to those who are in the employ of the U.S. government and their dependents, and to members of Congress who are traveling on official business.

Tourist/Regular (blue cover)

Ordinary travel passports issued to citizens and nationals. Valid for ten years for those aged 16 and over. Valid for five years for those aged 15 and under. [7]

Emergency

Issued to travelers overseas whose document was stolen, misplaced or mutilated. Usually valid for one re-entry into the United States. Can be issued at a nearby United States Embassy or Consulate.

[edit] No "lookalike" U.S. passports

Unlike British passports, there are no "lookalike" U.S. passports; all persons of U.S. nationality receive the same passport, regardless of where they live. By acts of Congress, born or naturalized residents of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands are full U.S. citizens with the exact same legal rights as other citizens, including the right to request a standard U.S. passport. (The inability of citizens living in territories to vote for Congress or President is based solely on where they live; territorial citizens who move to the mainland can vote, while mainland citizens who move to the territories cannot.)

Born or naturalized residents of American Samoa and Swains Island are nationals, but not citizens, of the U.S.; although they do not have voting rights, they have the same rights to enter, live and work in the U.S. as U.S. citizens, so they receive the same passports as citizens. Indeed, non-citizen nationals are so unusual in the U.S. that the State Department has chosen for cost and security reasons to issue them standard U.S. passports as proof of their status, rather than the "certificate of non-citizen nationality" allowed by U.S. law. [8] However, these passports are endorsed with the text "the bearer of this passport is a U.S. national, not a U.S. citizen."

[edit] Physical Appearance

US passports are dark blue (except as noted above), with the Great Seal of the United States emblazoned in the center of the front cover. In contrast to the design endorsed by most other countries, the word “passport” is inscribed above the national seal and the official name of the issuing state is below it on the American travel document; however, the “e-passport” cover will have the biometric symbol at the bottom, as in other countries. US e-passport The standard US passport contains 24 pages, but for business and other classes of frequent travellers it can be expanded to 48 at no cost.

[edit] Passport Note

Most passports contain a note from the issuing state that is addressed to the authorities of all other states, identifying the bearer as a citizen of that state and requesting that he or she be allowed to pass and be treated according to international norms. The note inside of US passports states:

The Secretary of State of the United States of America hereby requests all whom it may concern to permit the citizen/national of the United States named herein to pass without delay or hindrance and in case of need to give all lawful aid and protection.

The note is then repeated in French, and in more recent passports, Spanish as well. The term "citizen/national" is used in the note because residents of American Samoa and Swains Island (who are nationals but not citizens) receive the same passports as U.S. citizens.

[edit] Languages

The data page's field names, the note requesting entry, the warning on the second page that the bearer is responsible for obtaining visas, the "entries" and "departures" notes on the visa pages, and the title "amendments and endorsements" on the back pages are currently printed in English, French and Spanish. These were only printed in English and French on older passports; U.S. passport procedures issued in 1996 (see "The US Passport" under "Sources" below) only refer to English and French.

English has always been used as it is the de facto national language of the United States; French (the historic language of international diplomacy) is also used as required by international passport standards. Spanish was added during the second Clinton administration in recognition of Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico; the change also indirectly recognizes the growing number of Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens.

[edit] United States biometric passports

The U.S. version of the biometric passport (which is also referred to as an "Electronic Passport") will only have digital imaging placed onto the contactless chip. For the post 9/11 era, this still provides a valuable increased level of security, but not as complex as the European version. However, the chip used in the U.S. passport will be large enough (64 kilobytes) to allow it to contain additional biometric identifiers should the need arise in the future. The U.S. Department of State began issuing biometric passports to government officials and diplomats in early 2006. It began issuing regular biometic passports at its Colorado Passport Agency on August 14, 2006; though they still expect that nearly all new or renewed passports issued by the department to American citizens will be biometric by the end of 2006, other sources say it won't happen until mid-2007. [9] [10] [11] [12]

A high level of security became a top priority in late 2001 for the United States. This tightened security required border control to take steps in cracking down on counterfeit paper 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 smart card IDs 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 are 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 biometic passport if used to enter the U.S. visa-free under the VWP.

A number of products are available on the market that will allow a concerned carrier of RFID-enabled passports to shield their data.

[edit] Visa-free Access for Personal US Passports (blue cover)

Around 140 countries or regions have granted visa-free access or visa-on-arrival to personal US passport holders (as of September 2006) [13][14]:

[edit] Asia

•  Bahrain 14 days tourist visa issued upon arrival for BD5.00.
•  Brunei Darussalam 90 days
•  Cambodia 1 month - Visa at port of entry for US$20 (tourist), US$25 (business)
•  Republic of China (Taiwan) 30 days
•  Timor-Leste 30 days - Visa issued upon arrival
•  Hong Kong 90 days
•  Israel 90 days
•  Japan 90 days
•  Republic of Korea 30 days
•  Kuwait 30 day visa issued upon arrival for US$24
•  Lebanon 30 day visa obtainable at port of entry for US$35 fee
•  Macau 30 days
•  Malaysia 3 months
•  Maldives 30 day visa issued upon arrival at no charge
•  Mongolia 90 days
•  Oman 30 day visa issued upon arrival for Omani Rial 6 (Around US$16 as of January 16,2007)
•  Philippines 21 days
•  Singapore 30 days
•  Sri Lanka 30 days
•  Thailand 30 days
•  Turkey 90 days (Visa required and may be obtained at port of entry)
•  Vietnam approximately $65 for 30 days (subject to change)
•  United Arab Emirates 30 days

[edit] Europe

Albania 30 days  Andorra 90 days  Austria 90 days  Belgium 90 days  Bosnia and Herzegovina 90 days  Bulgaria 90 days  Croatia 90 days  Cyprus 90 days  Czech Republic 90 days  Denmark 90 days, also applies to  Faroe Islands  Estonia 90 days  Finland 90 days  France 90 days  Georgia 90 days  Germany 90 days  Gibraltar 90 days  Greece 90 days  Hungary 90 days  Republic of Ireland 90 days  Iceland 90 days  Italy 90 days  Latvia 90 days  Liechtenstein 90 days  Lithuania 90 days  Luxembourg 90 days  Republic of Macedonia 90 days  Malta 3 months  Monaco 90 days  Montenegro 90 days  Netherlands 90 days  Norway 90 days  Poland 90 days  Portugal 90 days  Romania 90 days  Serbia 90 days  Slovenia 90 days  San Marino 3 months  Spain 90 days  Sweden 90 days  Switzerland 90 days  Slovakia 90 days  Ukraine 90 days  United Kingdom 6 months, applies to  Isle of Man and the Channel Islands too  Vatican City

[edit] Americas

Antigua and Barbuda 6 months  Anguilla  Argentina 90 days  Aruba  Bahamas 8 months  Barbados 6 months  Bermuda 3 months  Belize 30 days  British Virgin Islands  Canada 180 days (6 months)  Cayman Islands 3 months (period begins when entering British West Indies)  Chile 90 days(one time reciprocity fee/visa payable on arrival during first visit good for the life of the passport. about $100)  Colombia 90 days (extendable up to 180 days)  Costa Rica 90 days  Dominica  Dominican Republic A US$10 Tourist Card must be purchased upon arrival  Ecuador 90 days  El Salvador US$10 tourist card must be purchased upon arrival  Falkland Islands  French Guiana 90 days  Grenada 3 months (extendable to 6 months)  Greenland 90 days  Guadeloupe 90 days (Period begins upon entering French West Indies)  Guatemala 90 days  Guyana 30 day visa granted upon arrival  Haiti 90 days  Honduras US passport holders are issued a 30 day permit upon arrival, which can be renewed twice  Jamaica  Martinique  Mexico 180 days (6 months)  Montserrat  Nicaragua 30 days. US$5 tourist must be purchased upon arrival  Netherlands Antilles  Panama A US$5 Tourist Card must be purchased upon arrival. A visa is required if arriving overland or aboard a ship. [15]  Peru 90 days (extendible)  Saint Kitts and Nevis 3 months  Saint Lucia 6 months  Saint Pierre and Miquelon 1 month  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 6 months  Turks and Caicos Islands  Trinidad and Tobago 90 days  Uruguay 90 days  Venezuela 90 days

[edit] Africa

Botswana 90 days  Côte d'Ivoire 90 days  Equatorial Guinea 90 days  Lesotho 30 days  Malawi  Morocco 90 days  Mauritius Visa issued at port of entry  Mayotte  Namibia 90 days  Réunion  Rwanda 90 days  Senegal 90 days  Seychelles visa issued upon arrival for one month, which is extendable.  South Africa 30 Days  Saint Helena  Swaziland 60 days  Tunisia 4 months

[edit] Oceania

Australia Electronic Travel Authority required; special permit for visiting  Norfolk Island  Cook Islands 31 days  Fiji 4 months  French Polynesia 1 month  French Southern and Antarctic Lands  Marshall Islands 30 days (extendable to 90 days)  Micronesia 30 days  New Caledonia 1 month  New Zealand 3 months  Niue 30 days  Palau 1 year  Pitcairn Islands No visa required if visiting from passing ship  Samoa 60 days  Tonga 30 days  Tuvalu Visitor permit issued upon arrival  Vanuatu 30 days  Wallis and Futuna

[edit] Sources

• Lloyd, Martin. The Passport: The History of Man’s Most Travelled Document (England: Sutton Press, 2003). ISBN 0-7509-2964-2
• Passport information from Bureau of Consular Affairs website
• The US Passport - Department of State (PDF)
• New E-Passport