New Visa Requirements
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began a new high-tech registration system on January 5, 2004 to fingerprint and photograph foreign visitors, who are required to have visas, as they enter through designated U.S airports and seaports.
The program exempts permanent U.S. residents and foreign visitors from 21 countries who do not generally need visas to enter the U.S. Those exempted countries include Andorra, Austria, Australia, 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 the United Kingdom. Travelers from countries not included in the above list must have a visa, and will have digital photographs and electronic fingerprints taken or verified upon entering or exiting the U.S.
The seaports that have been initially selected by the DHS for implementation
date are:
California - Long Beach, San Pedro
Florida - Miami, Port Canaveral, Tampa, West Palm Beach
Texas - Galveston
Washington - Seattle
Canada - Victoria, Vancouver
Puerto Rico - San Juan
According to the DHS, the new system uses scanning equipment to collect digital photographs and electronic fingerprints from foreign visitors as they are processed through immigration services. Collection of the photographs and fingerprints are part of the U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology (U.S. VISIT), an entry-exit registration program created to keep better track of foreign visitors coming into the U.S. For more information, please visit www.dhs.gov/us-visit.