US Travel Registration
July 2, 2007
A total of 27 countries, mostly from Western Europe, have agreements with the United States that allow their citizens to enter for up to 90 days without a visa, and thus avoid the screening and red tape involved with applying for an entry permit.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees US customs and immigration services, has long been concerned that the program could allow terrorists to slip into the country undetected. At the same time, the department is also aware that reinstating visa requirements would cause headaches for millions of travellers.
US needs to know you’re coming
In an interview with German news magazine Der Spiegel, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff argued that online registration would save travellers the hassle of being turned away at the border and allow them to resolve any entry issues with their local US embassy before departure.
"Currently, because we don't necessarily know who is coming until right before they leave, it is often the case that someone travels six or eight hours across the Atlantic, that person arrives, and we say: 'Guess what, we are not admitting you, '" Chertoff said.
For tourists, long queues and protracted paperwork might be a necessary annoyance, but for business, there is a concern that these additional demands could be seriously obstructive.
Time is money
"Speed is everything," said Michael Maibach, president of the European-American Business Council, when asked about how the need to give 48 hours notice of departure might affect business. Last-minute business travel, said Maibach, happens frequently, particularly when a company is close to closing a deal or providing urgent technical service support.
"We think that the US-Europe relationship is the most important economic relationship in the world. It is 40 percent of world GDP and 60 percent of world trade so our governments should be doing everything they can to facilitate that, "Maibach added.
Security need not be bad for business
The council didn't dispute the need for strong border security measures but said any measures need to be effective and efficient. Maibach, who travelled between the US and Germany, Belgium and Russia multiple times in the last six weeks, said he would like to see a fast-tracking system for frequent travellers.
"There ought to be a special passport lane for people that have been pre-approved for travel, so that we don’t concentrate on people who have been checked," he suggested.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said there will likely be a provision in the online registration program for last-minute travel, but that the legislation is still open to public comment.
Preserving goodwill
Chertoff said he believes that online registration is the best way to protect the visa waiver program, arguing that if a terrorist attack was carried out in the US by someone who entered unscreened, there would be immediate public calls to abolish the program altogether.
“In the end, I think Europeans have to recognize we can never be put in a position where we surrender to another government the determination of who comes into our country,” Chertoff told Der Spiegel.