The United States will allow 27 mainly European states taking part in a visa free travel scheme more time to introduce biometric data in passports.
The United States risked losing billions of dollars in spending by tourists and business travelers if it had stuck to tight timetable because about half the countries participating in the visa waiver scheme would miss the deadline.
Reuters
The new biometric criteria would only be for new passports, issued after October 26. Older passports just need to be machine readable. All Dutch passports are so we would have had no problem.
