An immigration official at Narita international airport teaches a visitor arriving in Japan how to use the digital fingerprint reader. Japan is fingerprinting and photographing all foreigners aged 16 or over upon their entry into the country as an anti-terrorism measure. (Koji Sasahara/AP)
In Depth
Travel
Security
Expect delays: countries revamp rules as U.S. regulations tighten
Last Updated May 13, 2008
By Wallace Immen
It's a point of honour. I'd never been fingerprinted in my life and so I resented being told to stick my fingers — slowly please — into a scanner and stare into a camera lens "for security purposes."
Standing in line waiting to be photographed and fingerprinted by an unsmiling Japanese official in Osaka made me feel like a suspected perpetrator about to be read my rights.
But it was an American ahead of me — who'd waited in line for more than an hour — who was the first to say it: "This is so stupid and totally pointless. They're retaliating for what Americans make them go through when they visit us."
Vital information
Even if you're a frequent traveler, it's best to check on the entry requirements of the country you plan to visit, because they change regularly.
Yes, and Japan isn't the only country playing tit for tat on travel security. Whether you are going to Asia, Europe, South America or the United States this year, there will be more identity checks (including fingerprinting), requirements for passports and visas, and X-raying of bags and shoes.
So be prepared for significant delays. And in some cases, additional costs.
State the purpose of your visit …
The Japanese fingerprinting occurred as officials boarded my cruise ship, the Seven Seas Voyager, for what in previous years would have been a routine immigration inspection. Under the new rules, the ship could not be cleared to let anyone ashore until all 700 passengers had been scanned and photographed. The process ultimately dragged on for more than three hours and slashed the time available for passengers' shore excursions.
Even worse for one of the Canadian couples aboard, they were told they'd have to get off and arrange a pricey flight back home from Japan. The reason? The next stop on the cruise was China and they'd failed to get a Chinese visa. Under tighter security rules, they wouldn't be able to get one in time to be allowed off the ship to fly home from Shanghai at the end of the cruise.
Stories are proliferating on the internet of Canadian air passengers who weren't allowed to board flights connecting in the United States because they didn't have passports, now mandatory for air travellers. Others complain of missing flight connections because of delays waiting in line to clear immigration in the United States, Brazil or Japan, where fingerprinting is being done of all arriving and departing "aliens."
The Americans started it all, of course.
Since 2004, Homeland Security rules have required visitors to the States from a long list of countries to undergo a fingerprint scan when arriving in and leaving the country. Canadian citizens are so far exempt from the rule, but so were Japanese tourists, at first.
When the U.S. decided to include staunch allies such as Australia, Japan and European Union countries in the ranks of foreigners who have to be scanned, security became a worldwide growth industry in an escalating war of retaliation.
The big new Terminal 5 at London's Heathrow airport is fitted out with "miSense" — the latest equipment to take fingerprints and photos of all arriving passengers, part of a system to check identities of passengers when they board another flight. But after a pilot project that was described as a success, implementation was "temporarily suspended" for consultations on privacy issues. According to the British Airports Authority, the data would only be used for immediate identification, and would be destroyed at the end of each day. But critics fear that once scanning becomes routine, it could lead to a permanent worldwide database that would track travellers' movements.
In fact, a proposal made to the European Union in February would require collecting and long-term filing of biometric information of all arriving non-EU citizens, which could include not only fingerprints but also eyeball scans.
International crackdown
Security spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing said the plan would have to be approved by EU governments and legal advisers before it could become a legislative proposal and the equipment would not likely be in place until at least 2012. However, the EU's executive is also considering forcing all air travellers to register their identities online in advance of flights to any EU member country, Abbing told the Reuters news agency, and it's possible that would be implemented more quickly.
Australia doesn't require biometric scans yet, but even though it is one of our closest commonwealth cousins, it requires visitors — including Canadians — to get a visa, called an electronic travel authority.
Brazil is also making Americans — but so far not Canadians — give fingerprints and photos when they visit. Reports say the process can take anywhere from minutes to hours, depending on whether the union responsible for security is staging a job action.
Other South American countries are also implementing stricter visa rules.
U.S. citizens now must obtain visas to enter Bolivia, a law that is described as "a matter of reciprocity" for the way Bolivians get treated by the U.S., President Evo Morales was reported as saying when the law took effect.
While Canada requires visas for visiting Bolivians, a reciprocal rule has not been imposed on Canadians by Bolivia — yet. But in the current security mood, many countries are considering new rules simply because the U.S. regulations are continually tightening.
Peru, for instance, is now requiring Canadians to submit not only a photograph, but also a fingerprint, with visa applications.
Worst yet to come?
And the U.S. rules are getting stricter.
This year, for instance, the United States is expanding its fingerprinting procedure at major airports. In the past, prints from two fingers were sufficient, but now visitors with visas must stick all 10 fingers into the digit scanners. While only Canadian residents who require visas to visit the States must undergo scanning, other security paperwork that applies to everyone is slowing down the process of getting clearance.
Since January, Canadian citizens entering the United States by land or sea must present a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver's licence, and a second proof of citizenship, which can be a birth certificate, citizenship card or valid passport.
By air, travellers flying to or making a connection in a U.S. destination must have a passport. All the riffling and reading this requires of officials is creating slowdowns and increasing the time it takes to clear immigration at border crossings and airports.
This has frequent travellers looking into getting NEXUS cards, which allow Canadian or U.S. citizens to clear immigration with a swipe of a card and a glance at a set of sensors. Registration costs $50. But before approval, an applicant has to pass a background security check and get that "under suspicion" feeling by sitting for a photograph, fingerprinting and eyeballs scans that will become part of the security files in both countries.
There are Americans and many Canadians who will staunchly defend the need to inconvenience millions on the off chance the prodding and scanning will catch a known terrorist. At the very least, after an incident, officials will have a record of what the suspect looked like.
So about all you can do if you want to travel outside Canada is smile (but not too aggressively please) for the camera. And remember, when they say "put 'er there, pal," it's not a welcoming handshake they want, but your fingerprints.
Wallace Immen is a Toronto-based writer who has travelled to 86 countries, only one of which required him to be fingerprinted.
