Just as Elvis Presley ushered in a whole new era of American music and popular culture, the Customs ELVIS program is a whole new era in data electronic transmissions of textile visas. This program has been gaining momentum since 1994, and Customs wants to increase the number of foreign countries participating in the system.

What exactly is Elvis?
It's an electronic "visa" system for textiles. A visa works like a passport. It serves as an approval issued by a foreign country's government - or by its representative - and officially permits the exportation of textile products into the United States. It describes the shipment, certifies the country-of-origin, and authorizes the shipment to be charged against any applicable quota. Countries participating in the ELVIS can request a Visa Activity Report that will provide them with valuable textile quota information.

Countries participating in the ELVIS program: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Malaysia, South Korea, China, Philippines, and Thailand.

The big advantage to ELVIS is that it can protect a country's sensitive textile quota limits from visa misrepresentation and fraud against their quota restraints caused by illegal U.S. exportation. Exporters that illegally enter goods under another foreign country's quota limit can cost that country thousands of dollars in lost revenue by reducing the import allocation of the country reported by U.S. Customs.

With ELVIS, once the "electronic" visa information is received by Customs from a foreign country, it is held pending the transmission of entry and visa information by the actual importer, or his authorized representative, at entry. When documents are compared electronically by the system, and if the critical data elements sent by both the foreign country and the importer match, the shipment is released and the quota is reported. Without the matching criteria the shipment is detained or rejected thus protecting it from fraud.

How does a country get started?
All ELVIS participants are required to submit paper visas that support the electronic transmission, when starting the program.

To participate countries must apply for ELVIS by submitting a written application/request to U.S. Customs that includes:

• name of the country's authorized service provider(asp). A signed agreement executed between the foreign government and its appointed ASP, or an indication that the foreign government is selecting an ASP.
• proof of technical capability. Supplied by the authorized service provider, the data ensure that the ASP can connect directly to a network that is pre-certified by Customs.
• contact(s) oversight. Person(s) responsible for ELVIS in the government of the foreign country.

For more information contact the Office of Field Operations at 202.927.5399/5396.