Breaking News

US Department of Homeland Security raises threat level to "orange"
As a reaction to the planned but failed terrorist attacks at the airport in London on August 10, 2006, the Secretary of Homeland Security has raised the threat level to "orange" for all commercial flights from Great Britain to the US and along with that the level of security at the airports. The level orange is also in effect for all international and American flights. The American Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has enhanced security controls at the checkpoints of all American airports. This means with few exceptions, all liquids, creams and gels are not permitted in the security areas or on board the planes. For more detailed information, please refer to the homepage of the US embassy under www.usembassy.de/germany/visa/whats_new.html.

New Austrian passports do not require visa
Anyone holding an Austrian passport issued on or after June 16, 2006 (with chip and digitalized photo) may travel to the US under the Visa Waiver Program. The new Austrian children's passport (without chip but with digitalized photo) may also be used fro visa-free travel to the US until the expiration date, provided it has been issued before October 26, 2006. Please note that each person travelling to the US under the Visa Waiver Program (children included) needs his or her own passport. Austrian passports issued or extended after October 26, 2005 may be used for the Visa Waiver Program until October 26, 2006, provided those passports include a photo-vignette of the Austrian Department of the Interior.

This does NOT apply to the machine-readable passports issued before October 26. For those, the general regulations of the Visa Waiver Program still apply. Find information on Austrian passports on www.help.gv.at.