I am travelling to Miami on 5th Nov for 2 week holiday. I have a NON-BIOMETRIC Swiss Passport BUT i have a BIOMETRIC New Zealand Passport.
Can i fly from Germany (cheaper than Zurich) to Miami and back again on my New Zealand Passport???? New Zealand partisipates in the Visa Wavier Programme. And my NZ passport expires 2018.
Or do i have to fork out the money for a Biometric Swiss passport even though my current one doesnt expire till 2017????
Hope somebody can help me as i have sent numerous emails to embassies and called the NZ embassy in Geneva and The US embassy in Bern is just a machine telling me to read their website I have even called the airline i am flying with but with no help to my problem
you can use either passport. Your Swiss passport is an "06" model which is machine-readable and can be used for entry as part of the visa waiver programme.
https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/ and your credit card are what you need next. I'd do that about 5 days before travelling to get max value from your $14 tourist tax.
Not quite true. The situation in 2007 was as show below though it may have changed since:
If you have a Swiss passport issued after October 2006 that is not a bio-metric passport then you need a full visa.
Probably best to use your NZ passport but whichever one you do use, check the fine-print of the entry rules very carefully, especially with respect to type of passport and issue date and do not rely solely on information posted on here.
Enter the billing postal code of the credit card. A U.S. Zip Code format must be 5 or 9 digits (no dash). A Canadian Postal Code must be in the format AnAnAn, where ‘A’ is an uppercase letter and ‘n’ is a number. A Mexican Postal Code must be 5 digits.
It is not difficult to understand, but God, what a hassle and for what exactly? Do you feel safer now?
Much as I love travelling in the USA (been 20+ times, albeit only once with the children), I've lost the buzz and genuine excitement I used to get when planning a trip across the pond.
Now when Mrs OM says "Lufthansa have got a great deal to Miami", we look at each other with a sigh and think "But is it worth that wait in Immigration and those Airport Security queues?" or "Do I have to politely tell the TSA not to raise their voice at me when asking me to remove my shoes, (I'm not a criminal, I'm British and BTW, do you know how many British soldiers died in Iraq fighting a war that was nothing to do with Al Qaeda?)"
The bracketed bits are the words I've never dared say.
SFO were trialling a Visa Waiver exit system in the departure lounge some time ago. There was the same rudeness with the staff who were explaining how it worked.
Three times the lady told me what to do and three times I ignored her.
I then turned to her and told he that good manners cost nothing and I would continue to ignore her until I heard the word "Please".
She gave me a filthy look and then said "Please would you..."
I wouldn't have tried that on the way in at border control
We might be travelling to NYC in October and I just need some clarification re passports.
My wife and kids have UK passports with biometric chips, whereas mine does not. Am I correct in thinking I would need one for entry to the US? If so, I might just as well get my Swiss passport, which I presume would automatically be a biometric version, also correct? Any idea on processing times for Swiss passports?
I work in the industry and every single day passengers are offloaded on US bound flights because of "minor" infringements e.g. I saw an OAP with an expired green card, permanent US resident be refused travel recently. The airline has no choice - check-in agents are de-facto 1st line Immigration officers now.
I know what you mean about the queues. We took advantage of the Lufthansa deal last Spring and the security queues were far worse than I had imagined. But the weather was great, the shopping was amazing, and it was an opportunity to visit family and friends. The seats sell fast so we could not get the direct flight. So my advice is book early.
P.S. Sorry to digress. In answer to the OPs question, I had to obtain a new Biometric Swiss passport as my previous one was valid but not biometric. The processing time was pretty quick (out of the office in Aarau), about 2 weeks from what I recall.