US President George W. Bush has agreed to give friendly countries, whose citizens may travel to the United States without visas, an additional year to issue high-tech passports that were to have been required for visa-free visits in October, the State Department said on Tuesday.
The delay in the deadline gives the 27 countries currently enrolled in the so-called Visa Waiver Programme until October 26, 2005 to issue passports that include "biometric indicators" - computer chips with a digitally encoded record of the bearer's face and possibly fingerprints - so that their citizens can remain eligible for the scheme, the department said.
Bush signed the law on Monday and while it is not the two-year delay requested by his administration, the department said the move would prevent disruption to travellers and address concerns about the deadline expressed by the 27 nations in the program.