The Department of State announced that the requirement that travelers have machine-readable passports to be admitted under the visa waiver program has been postponed until October 26, 2004 for the 21 participating countries which formally submitted a postponement request. The countries which have been granted the postponement are Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. 

Five visa waiver countries did not request postponement because nearly all of their citizens already hold machine-readable passports. Those countries are Andorra, Brunei, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Slovenia. As of October 1, 2003, visa waiver travelers from those five countries must present either a machine-readable passport or a United States visa. Belgium was not eligible for postponement because its citizens entering the United States under the visa waiver program have been required to present a machine-readable passport since May 15, 2003.

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