Warning: travelling to the US with new passport

[Marco 72]

A word of warning for those travelling to the US under the Visa Waiver Program with a new passport: you can expect to be taken to secondary inspection and be questioned at length about your identity and background. They told me they had to do this due to problems they have had with biometric passports. The process was not unfriendly but it took a long time and I almost missed my connecting flight.

[steveyb]

would that apply to someone travelling to US on a new irish passport instead of their usualy UK passport?

[Marco 72]

would that apply to someone travelling to US on a new irish passport instead of their usualy UK passport?

It probably would. I saw several Germans, an Italian and a Spaniard in the waiting room as well (plus some who sounded as if they were from Scandinavia), so it's not just people with British passports. How old is your passport? I don't know when they stop considering it "new". Mine was about 7-8 weeks old.

[rhianna]

Marco is quite right about this, had this same sort of questioning at JFK on the 24th July, my british passport was issued in Feb 2007.

[Eternal_Howl]

I travelled to the US in April on my new New Zealand biometric passport and had no hassles. It took the expected 2 hours to get through the line at customs but that's about it. Took my thumb print at the check through and that's all.