US to fingerprint visitors
Visitors travelling to the US will be fingerprinted and photographed before entered the country, The Associated Press learned tonight.
The move affects citizens of 27 countries – including close allies Britain, Japan and Australia – who had been allowed to travel within the United States without a visa for up to 90 days.
Under changes that will take effect by September 30, they will be fingerprinted and photographed when they enter through any of 115 international airports and 14 seaports.
Asa Hutchinson, the Homeland Security Department’s border and transportation under-secretary, was to hold a news conference later today to discuss the changes to the US-VISIT programme.
Members of Congress were briefed about the move today.
The Bush administration made the decision after determining the so-called “visa-waiver countries” will not meet an October deadline to have biometric passports that include fingerprint and iris identification features that make the documents virtually impossible to counterfeit.
But visitors will not have to go through the consulate interviews, background checks, fingerprinting and photographing that foreigners from other countries must do to obtain a visa.
The US-VISIT programme was passed by Congress in response to the September 11 attacks.
In January, the US government began fingerprinting and photographing visitors from nations other than the visa-waiver countries. About five million people have been processed so far.
Fingerprinting the visa-waiver citizens could have ramifications for Americans when they travel abroad.
When US-VISIT began last winter, Brazil retaliated by requiring Americans visiting that country to be fingerprinted and photographed.
The visa-waiver countries are: Andorra, Australia, Austria, 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 Britain.
