Biometrics Rules Put Visa-Free U.S. Visits at Risk

"U.S. economy stood to lose $10-$15 billion a year"

Bin Laden wins again.

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Biometrics Rules Put Visa-Free U.S. Visits at Risk


By Caroline Drees, Security Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Millions of visitors from key U.S. allies may soon
need visas for the United States because their countries will miss a second
deadline to include high-tech security features in new passports, a senior
U.S. official said on Thursday.

The expected failure by the majority of the 27 so-called visa waiver
countries to embed a digital photograph in all new passports from Oct. 26
would cause consular nightmares, and travel industry sources say it could
cost the U.S. economy billion of dollars in missed travel spending.

"The majority of the visa waiver countries are not going to be producing
(the biometric) passports by that deadline," Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State for Consular Affairs Janice Jacobs told Reuters in an interview.

The U.S. Congress would have to pass a new law to extend the deadline, which
was already delayed by 12 months last year. The measures were proposed after
the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to tighten border controls.

Jacobs said more than 20 of the visa waiver states -- including Britain,
France and Japan -- would probably miss the deadline. Visa waiver states are
mostly European, but also include countries like Japan and Australia.

In past years, roughly 13-15 million people came to the United States under
the visa waiver program, accounting for about two-thirds of spending by
overseas visitors. Travelers from visa waiver countries may visit the United
States for up to 90 days for business or pleasure using only a passport.

According to current U.S. legislation, all new passports issued by visa
waiver countries after Oct. 26 have to contain an embedded computer chip
with the new biometric data.

"Anyone who gets a passport issued after that date ... that doesn't have the
biometrics would have to come in for visas," Jacobs said.

Jacobs said citizens from these 27 countries who held a valid passport
without the biometric data on Oct. 26, 2005, would be "grandfathered" until
that passport expires, "as long as it's machine-readable." Passports from
visa waiver countries have had to be machine readable since last year.

Anthony Gooch, the spokesman for the European Union ( news -web sites ) in
Washington, agreed it looked likely that many EU states would not be able to
meet the October deadline.

The EU, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security had all
pushed for a two-year extension last year, but Congress only agreed to 12
months.

Rick Webster, director of government affairs at the Travel Industry
Association of America, said the U.S. economy stood to lose $10-$15 billion
a year if the visa waivers no longer apply.