Line up! Fingerprints and Photos Coming for Visa Waiver Program Travelers

There has been an important change to the U.S. Visit program since our extensive article in the last issue of Business Immigration Observer. Starting September 30, 2004, the US VISIT program will be extended to include travelers entering under the Visa Waiver Program (“VWP”). The VWP allowed travels from certain countries to enter the U.S. for up to 90 days for business or pleasure using only their passport and without requiring a visa. However, now under US VISIT they will also be subject to fingerprinting and have their photographs taken upon entry. Until recently the US VISIT program applied only nonimmigrant visa holders who are not subject to the National Security Entry Exit Registration System (“NSEERS special registration”).

US-VISIT is the new U.S. entry-exit system with enhanced security to be used at designated ports of entry to and ports of exit from the U.S. As part of this program, the Custom and Border Protection (“CBP”) officer will obtain biometrics from applicable nonimmigrant visa holders to verify their identities and to authenticate their travel documents through digital fingerprinting of the visa holders’ left and right index fingers and digital photographing. This biometric data and other information is checked against law enforcement and intelligence data to determine whether a nonimmigrant visa holder would pose a threat to national security, public safety, or is otherwise inadmissible. The biometric information is shared with other governmental agencies.

The VWP allowed travels from certain countries to enter the U.S. for up to 90 days for business or pleasure using only their passport and without requiring a visa. The extension of the US VISIT program to VWP travelers will impact approximately 13 million visitors to the U.S. who enter using the Visa Waiver Program every year. There are currently 27 countries in the VWP program including Andorra, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Companies may want to alert foreign clients or foreign employees that are expecting to enter the U.S. under the VWP to expect to be fingerprinted and photographed when they enter the U.S. anytime after September 30, 2004. Overall delays in processing for entry could also occur caused by the sheer amount of visitors that will now be subject to US VISIT. Some individuals may also experience delays that they have not in the past if their data some how triggers something in the system which may result in them being sent to secondary inspection.

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