Travelers Entering U.S. Face Security Hurdles

A slew of intense security measures introduced by the Bush Administration have taken effect over the past few months—and more are on the way—which could cause some severe administrative headaches during the course of 2004 for travelers entering the United States. Travel managers should watch out for the following main obstacles:

Visa Waiver: Passport holders from 27 countries, which includes most Western nations, are entitled to enter the United States without obtaining a visa. However, visitors from visa waiver countries who fall into a wide variety of categories are required to obtain a visa to enter the United States. These include contracted journalists, government officials and anyone visiting for more than 90 days. There are various other exceptions and travel managers are advised to familiarize themselves with the details. It is worth checking with the local U.S. consulate of the passport holder or a specialist passport and visa handling service.

Machine-Readable Passports: Beginning Oct. 26, the visa waiver will apply only to visitors with machine-readable passports. This rule originally was supposed to have come into effect in October 2003. However, after protests from numerous countries that were not ready, it was deferred by one year for all visa waiver nations except Belgium and a handful of smaller states, such as Andorra. The scale of the problem varies from country to country. Only a small number of U.K. passports, for instance, are not machine-readable, but as of last September the figure in France was 50 percent.

Biometric Passports: Oct. 26 also is significant because passports issued after that date for visa waiver travelers will have to carry biometric details—fingerprints or face-recognition data—on a microchip. If not, the visitor will need a visa. In practice, this will apply to almost anyone entering the United States because few, if any, governments will be issuing biometric passports by that time. The British government is among those attempting to negotiate an extension to the deadline. It hopes to start issuing biometric passports in mid-2005.

Obtaining A Visa: Most visa types now can be obtained only by a pre-arranged, face-to-face interview with a U.S. consular official, which usually will mean a special trip for the traveler to the U.S. embassy in the capital city of their country.

US VISIT: As of Jan. 5, all visitors entering the United States who are traveling on a visa must have their fingerprints and photographs taken both on entry to and exit from the country, for a program known as United States Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology. Travelers arriving at an airport or seaport must put both their index fingers on a glass plate that scans their biometric identity. A photograph of their face is taken at the same time. On leaving the country, visitors are required to enter an automated self-service kiosk, where they are asked to scan their travel documents and place their fingerprints on a glass plate once more.

Transit Without Visas: Passports holders who were not entitled to a visa waiver used to be able to transit through the United States without obtaining a visa. That entitlement was withdrawn in August 2003.

Passenger Name Records: In February 2003, U.S. Customs and Border Protection began accessing the passenger name record of every person flying into, through and out of the United States. The United States accesses the PNR data but will delete information about passengers' health, race or religion. The records also will be used only to hunt terrorists or trans-national criminals and will be stored for 3.5 years.

Advance Passenger Information System: Under the APIS scheme, airlines currently have to transmit passport details of all passengers to the United States within 15 minutes of an aircraft's departure. The United States wishes to extend APIS to include extra items of information, including where passengers will stay on arrival in the United States. Airlines have been waiting for a year for a briefing on how this will work, but the advice has not been forthcoming. British Airways estimates it will add about two minutes to the time it takes to check in a passenger. That adds up to an extra 15 hours to check in all the passengers on a Boeing 747.

Waiting: With the United States on a heightened threat level, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the United Kingdom has warned visitors to the United States to "expect longer and more stringent security checks." Some flights to the United States from the United Kingdom and other European countries have been delayed for more than 24 hours owing to security fears.

Sky Marshals: Despite protests from European governments and pilots groups, the United States is ordering armed sky marshals to be put on selected flights to the United States.

Lavatories: Qantas said that as a result of new U.S. security rulings, no more than two passengers are allowed to congregate outside a lavatory while onboard its aircraft in U.S. airspace.