November 25, 2003

Special Registration to End?

There have been various reports in the media regarding the ending of the special registration program, NSEERS, by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). However, there has been no official announcement from the DHS regarding the ending of the program. These reports are coming out as the program is reaching its year anniversary of implementation and the first annual reporting requirements for individuals are beginning to kick in.

While there has been no official announcement from DHS regarding the ending of the program, in a New York times article a DHS spokesman acknowledged that the DHS was at least reviewing the program to see if it should end. Since there has been no official word on if the program is being ended, individuals subject to NSEERS should continue to follow all the registration requirements including departure reporting requirements and annual reporting requirements until there is an official announcement to ensure they do not incur any immigration violations. In addition, there has been some speculation that even if the program “ends” some of the reporting requirements or other requirements could be kept into place. Another possibility is that NSEERS program will be taken over by the US VISIT program which is supposed to be going into place in January and will involve taking the fingerprints and photographs of all foreign visitors who are entering the U.S. with visas.

GT will continue to monitor this situation and post any additional information when it becomes available.