Foreign travelers face new scrutiny

MIAMI — Travelers from some of America’s closest allies, including wealthy countries in Europe and Asia, can no longer just present their passports to an immigration inspector on arrival in the United States and expect to be admitted immediately. Now they also must be fingerprinted and photographed.

The new system went into effect last week at 115 airports across the country — part of a growing body of immigration restrictions enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“The first day has gone extremely well,” said Zachary Mann, Miami spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security agency that now oversees immigration and customs inspectors. “It only adds about 20 seconds to the passenger’s processing time, which is less than two minutes total, as long as everything is in order.”

Some German passengers interviewed at Miami International Airport, one of the country’s busiest ports of entry, said they did not mind the new procedures — though two noted the program is controversial and would probably upset them if enacted at home.

“It didn’t bother me at all,” said Christian Luft, 35, a Lufthansa employee who arrived from Frankfurt with his wife, Tanja, 30, for an eight-day vacation in Key West, Fla. “It usually takes long to get through immigration anyway and this only adds a few seconds … if they were to take pictures in Germany, that would bother me, but over here it’s OK.”

Kathrin Mann, a 25-year-old bank officer traveling with the Lufts, said she expected the process because it had been announced in the German media.

The procedure adds travelers from the so-called visa waiver countries to the US-VISIT program under which visa holders have been photographed and fingerprinted on arrival since January.

Visa-waiver countries are: Andorra, Austria, Australia, Britain, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The procedure has sparked protests by some travelers in the past, though the increased post-Sept. 11, 2001, scrutiny of foreign nationals has reportedly not discouraged many from visiting the country — partly because of a weaker dollar.

According to the latest immigration statistics, the overall number of foreign visitors to the United States in fiscal year 2003 was 27.8 million, only slightly down from 27.9 million in 2002.

About 13.5 million travelers from visa-waiver countries visited the United States in fiscal year 2003, statistics show, about 350,000 more than in fiscal year 2002. About 1.3 million visa-waiver travelers are expected to be processed through the Miami airport this year, said Zachary Mann.

“International travel declined after 9/11,” said Rick Webster, director of government affairs for the Travel Industry Association of America.

“But it came back up. The rest of the world sees a bargain with the weak dollar and they may be willing to put up with hassles,” Webster said. “just like standing in line for tickets for a good Broadway show.”