> Important Notice: New Requirements for Irish Passport Holders entering the United States of America

The US Secretary of State has decided that, with effect from 26 October 2004, citizens of the 21 countries, including Ireland, which participate in the Visa Waiver Programme (with the exception of those people who hold a Green Card or residence visa) must hold a machine readable passport if they wish to enter the United States of America without a visa. Children, including infants, who are endorsed on a parent's passport must have an individual machine readable passport or else obtain a visa on the parent's passport. This new requirement was incorporated in the Patriot Act which was signed into law on 26 October 2001 , following the events of 11 September, 2001 . Further information is available from the US Department of State website at http://travel.state.gov/vwp.html

Irish citizens who anticipate that they will be travelling to the United States during the lifetime of their current handwritten passports can apply for a machine readable passport. These machine readable passport applications are sent to the Passport Office in Dublin for processing which will take one month, at least, from the date of receipt in Dublin .

Irish citizens who wish to replace their existing handwritten unexpired passports with machine readable ones must pay the full ten year passport fee and complete a passport application form which can be obtained from the Embassy.

Please note that travellers should have a passport with a validity of at least 6 months beyond the date of intended stay in the United States .