INDEPTH: AIRPORT SECURITY
Entering the United States FAQs: US-VISIT
and NSEERS
CBC News Online | December 7, 2004
US-VISIT
1.What is the US-VISIT program?
U.S. Visa Waiver Countries
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Andorra
Austria
Australia
Belgium
Brunei
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Iceland
Italy
Japan
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Monaco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Portugal
San Marino
Singapore
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom (those with "unrestricted" right of abode in the U.K.)
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in April 2004 that it was expanding the US-VISIT program to include citizens from 27 "visa waiver" countries. Until then the United States required that "most foreign visitors to the U.S. on a visa" comply with the rules that demand they have "their two index fingers scanned and digital photograph taken to verify their identity at the port of entry."
For non-visa waiver countries, Homeland Security says the program is actually a continuation of a program that begins when a U.S. consulate issues a visa. When someone applies for a visa, biometric measures are used to determine if the applicant is in a database of known or suspected criminals or terrorists. The same measurements, the fingerprints and digital photograph, are then used to insure that the person entering the United States is the same person as the one who received the visa.
The US-VISIT program was expanded to the other countries because those nations could not meet an October 2004 deadline set by the U.S. Congress to have passports with biometric information such as fingerprints or iris scans.
The Department of Homeland Security says the 13 million visitors each year from those countries do not have to go through the background checks that are required from people applying for visas.
2. Where is the program working?
The US-VISIT program was first tested at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, Ga. The Department of Homeland Security says 20,000 passengers were screened on a voluntary basis from Nov. 17, 2003, until January, when it became mandatory.
As of January 2004, the program was implemented at 115 airports and sea cruise terminals in 14 seaports in the United States and overseas. In Canada, the US-VISIT program is in effect at prescreening points at the Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal airports as well as the cruise ship departure ports in Vancouver and Victoria.
The department is also conducting a pilot project of screening departing passengers at Baltimore-Washington International Airport and at Miami, Fla., cruise line terminals.
U.S. law calls for the entry-exit program to be operational at the 50 busiest land ports of entry on the Canadian and Mexican borders by Dec. 31, 2004, and all land ports by Dec. 31, 2005.
The program began testing Nov. 15, 2004, at crossings from Sarnia, Ont., to Port Huron, Mich.; from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to Laredo, Texas; and from Aqua Prieta, Mexico, to Douglas, Ariz.
3. Who is not subject to the US-VISIT program?
People who are permanent residents in the United States, who hold a "green card," are not subject to the U.S-VISIT procedures.
Mexican citizens holding "Border Crossing Cards," or "laser visas," are also not subject to the fingerprinting and photographing procedures.
4. What about Canadian citizens?
The Department of Homeland Security says "most Canadians" are
exempt from US-VISIT because Canadians do not require a visa
to visit the U.S. Most Canadians on U.S. visas are exempt, including
students, people on NAFTA professional visas, performing artists
and athletes.
NSEERS
Who is subject to NSEERS?
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Males born on or before Nov. 15, 1986, and who are nationals of:
Afghanistan
Algeria
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Egypt
Eritrea
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Libya
Morocco
North Korea
Oman
Pakistan
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Somalia
Sudan
Syria
Tunisia
United Arab Emirates
Yemen
|
1. What is NSEERS?
NSEERS stands for National Security Entry Exit Registration System. NSEERS is a special screening program aimed at male citizens of countries that may constitute what the Department of Homeland Security believes is a threat to U.S. national security.
Eventually the US-VISIT and NSEERS programs will be merged because people who are subject to NSEERS screening also require U.S. visas and thus are also subject to US-VISIT.
NSEERS was set up in September 2002 and was the first step towards a comprehensive entry-exit system, which is what US-VISIT is designed to be.
2. What does NSEERS do?
People entering the United States from NSEERS countries, whether visitors or immigrants, may be subject to secondary screening by immigration and customs officers, "based on national security and intelligence reports."
Immigrants to the United States are also subject to the NSEERS program and must register with a local immigration office, where they will be interviewed, photographed and fingerprinted.
Leaving the U.S.
1. How does the system work when someone leaves the United States?
The Department of Homeland Security says it is testing a number of systems for people leaving the United States at an airport or cruise line seaport. At the moment, the plan is to have visitors with visas – those subject to the US-VISIT system – to "check out" at an automated self-service booth once they have passed through airport security. Travellers would pass their passport or travel document through a scanner and repeat the digital fingerprinting that they went through when they arrived.
Canada's Policy
1. What is Canadian advice about the U.S. regulations?
The Canadian Passport office says on its website that it estimates that US-VISIT will be used for just 3,000 of the 60 million trips by Canadian citizens to the United States in any one year, for those Canadian citizens who require visa stickers.
Canadian permanent residents (landed immigrants) are subject to U.S. regulations based on their country of origin, including US-VISIT and NSEERS.
U.S. regulations also require that anyone from a visa waiver country must have obtained a machine-readable passport by October 2004. Canadians are not required to have machine-readable passports. However, all passports now issued in this country are machine-readable.
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