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Attention U.S. citizens (or permanent residents) traveling abroad this year: now you can skip the federal agents and zip through customs. That is, if you’ll be flying out of JFK, Dulles, or Houston. And, if you don’t mind paying for this service. And, if you don’t mind letting the government get a little personal. Keep reading for the details. |
According to the San Francisco Examiner, this new “registered traveler program” run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection is, for the moment, just an experiment; a pilot program due to run for the next 6 months.
It will cost each traveler $100 to participate, plus, you must “submit to a background check, fingerprinting and an interview with a customs agent to enroll.”
If you are accepted into the program, you can avoid the normal (long) customs lines, and swipe a card (or your passport) at a kiosk, give your fingerprints, and, you’re done.
Also, the Dept. of Homeland Security is also holding talks with other countries, with an eye toward opening up this programs to non-U.S. resident travelers. I like that — good for tourism, especially in this new era of Open Skies.
NYTimes had an article today how an Italian suspected of visa waiver overstays was detained for 10 days in Virginia. That’s the stuff that makes headlines and keeps tourists away. Shame on them…
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/us/14visa.html?_r=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
Comment by Andy — May 15, 2008 @ 4:33 pm
I’m wondering if they’ll allow members of Nexus - the program for frequent travelers between Canada/US to participate in this.
It sounds similar. When I travel to Canada (and back to the US from Canada), instead of lining up in the regular customs line, you go to a machine, which scans your iris to verify your identity, asks you a couple of questions, and prints out a receipt that you hand in when they take your customs card.
I’ve already gone through the background check (with both the US and Canada), the fingerprint process and the interview.
It’s a great program - there are never any lines, and it takes about 20 seconds from start to finish. The problem of course, is that it doesn’t work if you’re flying from overseas to the US. The machines are all technically located in Canada, as you pre-clear US customs before your flight.
I can always dream….can’t I?
Comment by Elliot Campbell — May 15, 2008 @ 8:50 pm