US Plans Entry Controls Prior to Departure

Hours of waiting and intimidating interrogation — the U.S. is not exactly making it easy for visitors to enter the country. In an attempt to speed up passport control at U.S. airports, similar controls in foreign airports are now also being considered.

Only eight days to go — and then it’s takeoff to the U.S. Better late than never, our colleague is thinking, as she applies for her ESTA, the mandatory entry permit. However, then the shock comes: The ESTA procedure will not accept her six-year-old son’s passport, a document that is supposed to be valid in all countries.

Here’s what she did not already know: a child’s passport will only be accepted if it was issued before Oct. 26, 2006 and has not been extended or changed since its issue date. Otherwise, a visa is required. However, that will take weeks and now it’s too late.

The U.S. is not making it easy for travelers to enter the country. These questionable formalities lead to long waiting times which are not only tedious but also jeopardize passengers’ connecting flights. Those foreign passengers who arrive at U.S. airports can expect a waiting time of up to four hours to proceed through passport and border control.

The U.S. has identified that many individuals are anxious about these changes. It fears that tourists will stay away — and this will surely not help it to crack its 100-million-visitors target by 2021. This is the reason why President Barack Obama promised that he would enforce faster clearance in U.S. airports earlier this year. The target waiting time is 15 minutes. In order to achieve this, an action plan needs to be implemented at 15 U.S. airports.

Controls before Departure

However, how can one speed up the clearance process at U.S. airports? As an example, the security controls that were noticeably tightened following the terrorist attacks on 9/11 could be introduced in the countries the tourists arrive from.

According to the website netzpolitik.org, U.S. authorities are planning to introduce very similar “upstream entry controls” in Germany and other EU member states. The advantage of this: after landing, passengers could be treated like domestic travelers and thereby be processed much faster. For customs and border control in the U.S., this would mean an immense relief for their personnel.

At the Irish airports in Shannon and Dublin, as well as Canada, there are already so-called “pre-clearance stations,” at which passengers can complete the immigration formalities before their departure. According to netzpolitik.org, the next airport within the EU to introduce this program should be Amsterdam-Schiphol. Both the Dutch and German governments are considering these recommendations from the U.S.

The Recommendations Are Binding for Airlines

As the passengers come through the control station, U.S. authorities are allowed to question and even search them. The passengers’ information would then be matched with U.S. databases in order to filter out any unwanted individuals. U.S. authorities could indeed declare a flight ban; however, any arrests would have to be enforced by the border police on the ground.

U.S. personnel are already present at German airports; however, if the authorities were to proceed with these security measures, their responsibilities would be noticeably increased. For example, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has its own department at Frankfurt Airport. According to netzpolitik.org, they already detain hundreds of passengers annually attempting to board flights by declaring “no-fly recommendations.”

However, the whistle-blowing platform “The Intercept” recently revealed how easily completely innocent citizens land on the so-called “no-fly lists.” In addition, these “recommendations” are binding for the airline companies. If unwanted passengers are nonetheless accepted on board, the airlines are threatened with a landing — or even a flight ban.

Other Provisional Solutions

Whether the U.S. can enforce its plans and whether it would participate in the financing of outsourced controls is still unclear. Until that happens, we begin to look to other solutions, such as the global entry program. This will allow travelers who agree to be checked once and who pay a fee of $100 (approximately 75 euros) five years to complete their entry procedure at automatic machines.

And as for our colleague? Will her three-week trip to the U.S. fall through? Thankfully not. She has managed to secure an express adult passport for her son. With this document, he no longer requires a visa. And luckily, the little man can already sign it in the meantime.