The Bermuda passport coding flaw that led to nearly seven years of travel problems will be corrected on schedule, according to Tom Oppenheim, the Deputy Governor.

David Burt said in November that the return of the BMU code was set for this April after years of meetings with officials in Britain.

The coding error surfaced after May 2016, when the printing of Bermudian British Overseas Territory Citizen passports was taken over by Britain.

The code for the biometric chip of Bermudian passports was switched in the process, reading GBR, for Great Britain, when scanned instead of BMU, the country code for Bermuda.

The discrepancy led to travel delays for Bermudians at ports of entry to the United States other than US pre-clearance at LF Wade International Airport.

Bermudians require neither a visa nor Electronic System for Travel Authorisation to enter the US, but officials in some airports mistakenly insisted one or the other was needed for travellers, some of whom missed their flights as a result.

A succession of government ministers has pressed the issue, accusing Britain of ignoring concerns flagged up by Bermuda when the passport transfer went through.

In 2019, Wayne Caines took up the issue when he was Minister of National Security. He raised the issue with Seema Kennedy, a British MP and Parliamentary Under Secretary at the Home Office.

In 2018, the late Walton Brown, then the home affairs minister, told Parliament that British authorities had been “obstinate” in dealing with the error.

It followed remarks in 2017 by the previous minister, Patricia Gordon-Pamplin, who blamed the British passport office and told MPs the Government was “demanding that there be an appropriate resolution to this problem”.

The issue was raised more recently by the Premier in meetings with Lord Goldsmith, the then British Minister for Overseas Territories, and David Rutley, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Mr Burt subsequently posted on X that “BMU codes will be reinstated as of April 2024”.

Government House confirmed this week that the return of the code remained on course.

Mr Oppenheim did not give a date in April when it would come into effect.

He told The Royal Gazette on Tuesday: “The project to reinstate the Bermuda code on passports is running as expected and is on track to deliver within the forecast timelines.

“Further detailed communications will be issued in due course as the go-live date approaches.”

He added: “The Department of Immigration, Government House and the UK Government are pleased to be working together on this issue.”