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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. earl *** 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. |
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