Immigration Law

ESTA SYSTEM FOR FOREIGN VISITORS NOT READY TO GO

By Greg Siskind

Surprise, surprise. Another hastily released rule designed to stick it to the Obama team turns out not to be ready to roll. Britain's Telegraph newspaper reports

Passengers had been told they must have clearance to fly three days ahead of their journey to avoid being denied boarding. But The Daily Telegraph has learned the US authorities will not strictly enforce the new system ? known as the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation or ESTA ? when it begins on Monday.

From Monday, the thousands of passengers who travel from Britain to the US every day should obtain authorisation from an American Government website in advance three days beforehand. So far more than 70,000 Britons have done so. But there are fears that some passengers ? especially those who are not computer literate ? will not have done so.

"There could be problems for people who don't fill out their ESTA forms and we want to avoid that situation," said a spokesman for the American Embassy in London. "We are trying to make sure that everybody gets on the plane. But people should fill out the form right now."

For the next few weeks passengers will be allowed to board as before and be allowed to fill out the information on a green card provided by the airlines during the flight.

Boy, that's smart. Implement this system - largely aimed at European Visa Waiver countries - in the middle of the period when all of the elderly retirees are off to Florida for their holidays in the sun. Is there a grown up around to explain to DHS that there are entire states in this country with economies that are collapsing because of dramatic declines in tourism over the last several months?

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on January 11, 2009 (boomark / email).