Visa Waiver Program

Under the visa waiver program, holders of passports from the following countries can travel to the United States without a visa if the purpose of the trip is tourism and/or business AND the visit will last 90 days or less:

Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The United Kingdom.

Travel under the visa waiver program must be made by commercial airline or steamship line using a return or ongoing ticket. Persons arriving by private yacht cannot use the waiver program and must obtain a visa. Persons who have been denied U.S. visas or who have been deported or denied entry into the United States or who have been arrested or convicted of any offense in any country cannot use the waiver and must apply for a visa.

Persons traveling on Canadian passports can visit the U.S. for tourism or business without a visa. Canadian passport holders do not need a round trip ticket and may arrive in the U.S. by any form of conveyance. The length of stay permitted Canadian passport holders is determined at the port of entry.

Effective March 17, 2003, Trinidad & Tobago nationals residing in Canada will be required to present a valid visa and passport for entry into the United States.

Effective May 15, 2003, citizens of Belgium must travel using a machine-readable passport.

Effective October 1, 2003, citizens of Andorra, Brunei, Liechtenstein, and Slovenia must present either a machine-readable passport or a U.S. visa.

Effective October 26, 2004, all visa waiver participants must present a machine-readable passport. Previous one-time exemptions for first-time visa waiver program travelers without machine readable passports ended June 26, 2005.

Effective October 26, 2005, all newly issued machine-readable passports must have a digitized photograph on the data page or an integrated chip with information from the data page.

Effective October 26, 2006, all newly issued machine-readable passports must have an integrated chip with information from the data page (e-passport).

The following link provides additional information regarding the Visa Waiver Program.

All Others

Passport holders from a country other than the ones described above must obtain a visa for travel to the United States.