U.S. State Department Visa Waiver Program

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Visitors from qualified countries, coming to the United States for business or tourism for 90 days or less, may be eligible to enter the United States without a visa. There are currently 27 countries that participate in the program: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Check with the American Embassy in your country for updates. You also can visit the U.S. State Department web site ( http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/tempvisitors_novisa_waiver.html) for more information.

Immigration Alert: Beginning Oct. 1, 2003, all travelers, including children and infants, who want to travel visa-free to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program must have machine-readable passports. Travelers who are unable to obtain machine-readable passports before Oct. 1, 2003, will thereafter not be able to enter the United States until they have either obtained machine-readable passports or obtained appropriate nonimmigrant visas at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad.

PAG Conference Preparation

Due to severe delays in getting VISAs to enter the US, we recommend that you plan ahead and do NOT wait for your abstract acceptance to begin the process. You should allow up to 6 months to complete the process. DO NOT WAIT. For more information about obtaining a US visa, please visit http://www.unitedstatesvisas.gov. Additional information may be found at the International Visitors Office. Individuals from selected countries can enter the US without a visa as long as they have a machine-readable passport, see HERE for more information.

To request letters of invitation to the PAG Conference, please make your requests to Dr. Hans H. Cheng (hcheng@msu.edu), USDA-ARS, Avian Disease and Oncology Laboratory, 3606 E. Mount Hope Road, East Lansing, MI 48823 USA. (phone: (1-517) 337-6758, FAX (1-517) 337-6776).

To minimize the cost and effort of preparing letters of invitations, the PAG organizing committee encourages individuals at the same location to coordinate their requests. In other words, if you know that someone else at your location is planning to attend PAG and needs a letter of invitation, then please request your letters at the same time.

To assist in the preparation of the letter, please include the following information in your request:
- full name -- Please indicate whether the letter should be addressed as Dr., Mr., Miss, or Ms
- complete address
- telephone and fax number
- if applicable, the title of your poster or talk
- if applicable, the years that you have previously attended PAG

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