The Israeli authorities have said that nearly two million citizens of the country are currently not eligible for visa-free travel to the United States as they do not hold a biometric passport.
According to the Population and Immigration Authority, 1.8 million Israelis hold a plain passport instead of a biometric passport at the moment, making them ineligible for the US Visa Waiver Program, VisaGuide.World reports.
As the Jerusalem Post explains, those who hold a plain passport are not able to complete the Electronic System for Travel Authorization form to be permitted entry and stay in the territory of the US for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa.
For this reason, all those who hold a plain passport have been called by the authorities to apply for a biometric passport so they are eligible for visa-free travel to the US.
However, according to the Jerusalem Post, the machines for the automatic issue of biometric passports, which were supposed to become fully operational in the Population and Immigration Authority offices in Tel Aviv in May and Beersheva in June, are still not available for use by the general public.
As explained, the machines were supposed to help the authorities with the backlog of passport applications, and it is expected that they will be available for citizens of the country before the visa waiver program comes into effect.
Commenting on the matter, the Population and Immigration Authority said that they are already dealing with the matter.
The same authority explained that certain Israelis without a biometric passport can still enter the US.
Through an official statement, the Population and Immigration Authority of Israel said that those who hold a valid US visa but not a biometric passport will be able to enter the US as long as both documents are still valid.
“We wish to clarify that holders of a valid US visa and a valid passport that is not biometric will not be required to replace their passports at this stage and will be able to enter the US with the visa, as long as both the visa and the passport are still valid,” the statement of the Authority reads.
The Visa Waiver Program for Israelis is set to become effective on November 30, with the US authorities saying that this is an important achievement in the partnership between the two countries.
Currently, there are 40 countries in the Visa Waiver Program. The list of countries does not get updated frequently, with Croatia being the latest country to become part of the program in 2021.