Progress Made in Travel Security

I’m pleased and proud that today the Department is announcing a final rule and schedule for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). ESTA will add new security to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), the program that lets millions of visitors from countries like the U.K., Japan, and France come to the U.S. without first getting a visa.

Three years ago, when the Policy office was created, one of the first things we looked at was the VWP landscape. There were voices seeking to close the program down. They pointed out, correctly, that the VWP was the product of an earlier age. If you’re most worried about foreign visitors becoming illegal immigrants, then it makes sense to relax visa requirements from other developed countries. If you’re worried about terrorism, though, it doesn’t make sense to admit any visitors without an opportunity to screen them first. Just because a country is economically developed and has a friendly government doesn’t mean there are no terrorists in that country willing to attack us.

That was one view, and a reasonable one. At the same time, we heard voices calling for expansion of the program, in part because it increasingly did not reflect the world in which we live. Some of our best allies – and some of the most rapidly developing economies -- are in Eastern Europe, and they don’t have VWP status.

Our solution was to expand the program – but only after dramatically improving the security guarantees that it requires.

ESTA is one of those guarantees. It is an electronic website where visitors to the U.S., many of whom have already gone on line to make a reservation with their airline, will now do the same with the United States. Instead of filling out a form on the plane, to be handed in at the immigration booth, visitors will supply the same information electronically and in advance of travel. From the traveler’s point of view, it means no more having to beg or borrow a pen from the flight attendant. Plus, if there are any admission problems, they can be resolved before the flight.

From DHS’s perspective, we have the information in advance – in time to make decisions about the tiny handful of travelers who pose security concerns. Plus, we don’t have to try to decipher everyone’s handwriting on the forms. It’s a win-win, particularly because the travel authorization will be good for two years.

Of course, no policy achievement in Washington is complete without press that doesn’t quite get it right. To be clear, this is not a visa; it is a substitute for forms that visa waiver travelers already fill out, and it is based on an Australian reporting system that has never been seen as a visa by other countries. Nor does it require 72 hours notice for travel to the U.S. It is recommended that individuals who plan to travel under the VWP apply for their ESTA as early as possible so as to avoid last minute problems. ESTA has been designed to accept applications for last minute and emergency travel. [*]

The system is now scheduled to be fully applicable to all VWP travelers in January 2009. That opens the way to admitting new members from Eastern Europe and elsewhere (assuming the other security requirements are met) – and substantially improving security – all in less than four years. It’s not often that officials get to see a policy initiative go from “glint in the eye” to interagency agreement, legislative authorization, and full implementation, all in their term of office. I’m deeply pleased and grateful to all the decision makers and participants who embraced our vision of a VWP that is both more secure and more broadly based.

Stewart Baker
Assistant Secretary for Policy

[* update: Changed last sentence from: "We will have a means to apply up to the time of travel in emergency case."]