Land Borders
Both the President of the United States and the United States Congress have mandated that border security enhancements not adversely affect legitimate travel and trade. In accordance with these mandates, US-VISIT was designeded to keep processing times to a minimum. US-VISIT would continue to use advanced technology to meet statutory requirements and minimize delays. US VISIT was not required to be implemented at the 50 busiest land border ports of entry until December 31, 2004.
DHS does not anticipate that US-VISIT will add significant delays at land borders; however, DHS is very sensitive to concerns about it. To gain a better understanding, DHS, as of March 2005, has been meeting with various community groups along the borders to discuss their concerns.
Land ports across the northern and southern borders present a unique challenge. The Department of Homeland Security is working in partnership with the brightest minds from the private sector to identify the optimum set of solutions for land border processing. A Request for Proposals was issued in November 2003 to engage private industry in the process, proposals were received in January, and a five-year, multi-billon dollar contract was awarded on time on May 28, 2004 to Accenture LLP to provide a wide range of professional and technical services to support the modernization of our border management processes and information technology systems.
Today, visitors with visas who cross our land borders are referred to secondary inspection for processing. By December 31, 2004, this secondary inspection will include US-VISIT processing: collecting two fingerscans on an inkless device and a digital photograph. This will allow the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer to match the visitor's information with the information collected by the Department of State at visa issuance.
Most Mexican citizens who travel to and from the United States regularly may apply for a multi-use travel document, B1/B2 Visa/BCC, also known as a "laser visa", which serves as either a BCC or a B1/B2 visa. Mexican citizens who use the travel document only as a BCC will not initially be subject to US-VISIT. This is an interim solution for the land border while the DHS explores the long-term solution to record the entry and exit of persons crossing our land ports of entry.
When admitted under the BCC program, Mexican citizens may stay currently in the United States for up to 30 days and travel within the "border zone" (within 25 miles of the border in Texas, California and New Mexico, and 75 miles of the border in Arizona). Approximately 6.8 million Mexican nationals today utilize a BCC to make approximately 104 million crossings per year when using the card as a BCC card only.
Prior to issuing a BCC to a Mexican citizen, the Department of State conducts biographic and biometric checks on the individual. The fingerscans and photograph of the Mexican citizen are then embedded into the BCC. A holder of a BCC is inspected to determine that he or she is the rightful bearer of the document and admissible to the U.S. when crossing through a U.S. port of entry.
In certain circumstances, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers may have reason to believe the person presenting the BCC is not the person to whom it was issued. At that point, the individual would be sent to secondary inspection to determine if there are any problems with the BCC, which could include comparing the individual to biometrics stored on the BCC or in DHS records. Readers for BCC's were deployed at the 50 busiest land ports of entry by the end of June 2004.
As the next phase of US-VISIT is implemented at southern land ports of entry by the end of 2004, if a Mexican citizen chooses to use the BCC as a B1/B2 visa (traveling outside the "border zone" and/or staying longer than 30 days in the U.S.), he or she will undergo US VISIT processing at the land border secondary inspection areas.
Since most Canadian citizens are visa exempt, they are currently not subject to the US VISIT process.
Canadian citizens who are required to obtain a visa in order to be admitted to the United States will be enrolled in US-VISIT upon entry. Those include Canadians citizens who seek admission as a Treaty Trader or Investor (E visa classifications); request entry under K classification (fiance) visas; arrive in a Non-Immigrant Visa (NIV) classification (Canadians typically do not hold a NIV document) that will require a stay in the United States exceeding six months; or are Trade NAFTA (TN) applicants.
The Department of Homeland Security is working in partnership with the private sector to identify the optimum set of solutions for land border processing.
At this time, US-VISIT only applies to foreign visitors seeking to be admitted pursuant to a non-immigrant visa who travel through designated airports and seaports. It does not yet apply to immigrants or lawful permanent residents (green card holders).
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