NEWS | Wednesday, 19 November 2008

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Visa-free travel to US still requires online application

€12 million spend on biometric passports “won’t be recovered” – Austin Gatt

Matthew Vella
Travellers planning on visa-free travel to the USA with their new biometric passport will have to start applying online for permission before travelling.
Malta has spent €12 million for the production of biometric passports, which are mandatory for Maltese passengers to travel to the USA without the need to apply for a visa.
But travellers will still have to fill out an electronic travel authorisation under the Department for Homeland Security’s new Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).
All nationals, including children, will be required to fill out an electronic travel authorisation form posted on the web prior to boarding a US-bound plane or vessel.
It will require answering questions about criminal records, communicable diseases, past history of visa revocation or deportation, and basic biographical data such as name, birth date and passport information.
The new process is intended to determine whether a traveller to the United States is a law enforcement or security risk. The authorisation will be valid for two years.
American ambassador to Malta Molly Bordonaro last week announced that all necessary steps for the waiver of the visa for travel into the USA have been completed. She said Malta may be expected to enter the visa waiver program by the end of 2008.
Government has spent €12 million in the manufacturing of biometric passports, which are mandatory for travelling to the USA without having to obtain a visa to enter the country. In the process, fees for passports have doubled for citizens.
In 2007, not more than 3,680 Maltese passengers flew to the USA. Up until August 2008, 2,378 passengers had left Malta to the USA.
While an empty passport previously used to cost the Passport Office €3, it now costs €30. Investments Minister Austin Gatt has said the outlay for the production of the passports may never be fully recovered, despite the new prices for passports.
The same technology will be used for the e-ID cards, that are expected to be launched by the end of next year, and which will include peoples’ health records. All stored information will be linked to Mater Dei Hospital, health clinics and, in time, to general practitioners’ clinics.
The new biometric passports are part of the US’s demands in its ‘war on terrorism’, although critics say the EU has only been keen to introduce more systems of mass surveillance which serve to control people, rather than fight terrorism.
Soon after the 11 September attacks in New York, President George W. Bush wrote to the EU on 16 October 2001 with a letter of demands concerning the fight against terrorism. The letter briefly outlined the cooperation demanded on border controls, which included machine-readable passports and visas, and the exploration of further use of biometrics.
In April 2008, Malta and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding outlining the final steps of the Visa Waiver Program roadmap process.
Bordonaro said that all agreements outlined in the memo have now been completed. “Malta has made great progress and is on track to joining the Visa Waiver Program. We feel Malta will be in the VWP possibly by the end of the year.”

mvella@mediatoday.com.mt

Visa-free travel to the USA

The personal information you have to disclose before catching your plane

Passengers will have to fill in forms on the web, disclosing whether they have a:

3 communicable diseases; physical or mental disorder; or if they are a drug abuser or addict;
3 communicable diseases of public health significance include: chancroid, gonorrhea, granuloma
inguinale, HIV, infectious leprosy, lymphogranuloma venereum, infectious syphilis, tubercolo
sis;
3 any history of behaviour associated with a mental disorder that may pose or has posed a threat
to others;
3 any convictions for crimes involving ‘moral turpitude’, or drug offences; sentences of over five
years, trafficking crimes;
3 past history of deportation.

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