The Visa Waiver Program allows citizens of specific countries to travel to the US for tourism or business for up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa. Germany is one of these countries, of course. But the passports must now be of the newer, machine-readable or biometric types, which is not a given for everybody yet.

Up until May 1, German emergency and temporary passports were valid for travel to the US, but that has now changed. Even those in possession of non-expired emergency and temporary passports must either now obtain a new passport or start filling out visa forms. That’s right. Americans can be abominable bureaucrats, too.

This change in policy was deemed necessary “in order to ensure the integrity of the Visa Waiver Program”. Understandably, the responsible authorities are constantly reviewing the standards of the travel documents which are accepted under the program. Unfortunately, they recently determined that German emergency and temporary passports, issued at many various locations as opposed to a central authority, have often gone missing or been stolen. “Therefore, we are requiring visas to verify the bona-fides of temporary passport holders”.

Have a nice flight though anyway, okay?