Tag: Immigration View All Tags
Tags: Airport News / Sydney Travel / Customs / Immigration / Technology / Passports / → All Tags
Facial Recognition Technology Will Check You Out At Sydney Airport
Sydney Airport has just gotten smarter: passengers with modern e-Passports arriving in Sydney now have the option of going through SmartGate, which means they can go through passport control without speaking to a real person.
At the 12 SmartGate kiosks now operating at the airport, travelers can insert their e-Passport to be scanned, then answer the standard declaration questions on a touchscreen. After that they are issued with a ticket, take it to the exit, insert it there and then the camera scans them to check they are the person shown in the passport.
Tags: Immigration / Borders / Visas / UK Travel / → All Tags
In Britain, It's a Struggle To Prove You're 'Just Visiting'
The guy probably had it all planned out before they searched his bags. A Mexican national, he declared his intent to visit a few friends in the U.K. before returning back home via Los Angeles. But his suitcase told a different story, and after customs found a note from a friend wishing him a "new life," he was forced to confess that he was planning to stay and work illegally -- and subsequently deported.
He's not alone: After years of relative open-door policies, the three leading British political parties are all calling for greater regulation of who gets into Britain, which could mean trouble for long-haul travelers without visas. And, spurred by a report from the Office of National Statistics which showed that some 214,000 foreign nationals had gained jobs in the U.K. while 278,000 Brits had lost theirs, most of the country is behind them.
The new policies include fingerprinting all visa applicants and tacking fees onto the entry visas for various countries, but it may also mean turning up the heat on legitimate vacationers. Perhaps packing a datebook showing you have something to get back to wouldn't be a bad idea.
Related Stories:
· Hasta la vista, baby [Reuters]
· UK slump poses challenge to support for an open economy [The Australian]
· New visa regulations may harm UK tourism [ASAP.co.uk]
· 2008: UK Stepping Up Its Immigration Game [Jaunted]
[Photo: traftery]
Tags: Immigration / Visas / Travel News / Know the Law / → All Tags
US Visitors Don't Get In Quite So Easy Anymore
The care-free days of non-US citizens flying into the country with just a little green form in their hand ended this week. If you're from one of the countries that belonged to the visa waiver program, you'd better listen up so you're not turned back at the border on your next visit to the United States.
Now you need to know about the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, which basically requires that travelers visiting the US apply for permission to enter the country at least 72 hours before they arrive. You use a simple form online and there's no cost attached, so there's not too much to complain about--except that if you don't do it in advance then you'll probably get sent home.
Once you get "approved," your permission lasts for two years, so frequent travelers don't need to keep hopping online. ESTA affects citizens of most European countries, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Brunei, so if that's you, don't forget to get online before you fly. No complainin' that we didn't warn you, alright?
Related Stories:
· ESTA [Official Site]
· Warning Over New US Travel Rules [BBC]
· Immigration coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: partiallyblind]
Tags: Easy Travel / Southeast Asia Travel / Passports / Immigration / → All Tags
Southeast Asia Travel Could Get Way Easier
The strong pros for visiting Southeast Asia (awesome food, beautiful countries, kind people, cheap) balance out its hardy cons (killer language barrier, suffocating climate, pricey plane travel). Soon, a coalition of countries will tip the scales in the favor of travelers--and we'll be booking our flights right quick.
Last week, delegates from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam came together in Hanoi to talk about creating a five-country, single-visa tourism scheme. The reduction in costs and headaches for travelers will be close to immeasurable--and it's a savvy move for leaders who want to boost their tourism revenues. This means one price, one stamp and we can pass through all five countries with ease, no shady border crossings, no bribes and no giving up valuable passport space for stamps from other cool places.
The Cambodian and Vietnamese reps agreed to allow 14-day, cross-border travel for any of their citizens holding a passport. This part of the pact goes into effect December 4. Summit attendees also suggested a "travel card" that Southeast Asian businesspeople could use to travel, without needing any visa, to all five countries. Those of us not lucky enough to come from SEA may have to wait a little longer to collect our pass, but the Cambodia-Vietnam agreement is a show of good faith and an indication this plan has serious potential.
Related Stories:
· Subregional Summit Pushes Single Visa Scheme [news.cn]
· Southeast Asia Field Trip [Jaunted]
[Photo: graeme_newcomb]
Tags: Visas / Immigration / → All Tags
Argentina Entry Fee: Don't Call It a Visa
Last month, we were worried that the fallout from this Hugo Chavez speech might lead to new fees for American tourists brave enough to travel to Venezuela. But instead it's Argentina that's planning to levy an entry fee on Americans, Australians, Canadians and others, starting January 1.
Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo says charging foreign nationals $134 upon their entry into Argentina is payback for the visa fee his people have to pay when heading to other countries:
We feel that it's an injustice that an Argentine goes to the United States and has to pay $134 for a visa.
For what it's worth, this doesn't mean visitors have to actually apply for a visa; the charge, which covers you for 10 years, is simply a "fee of reciprocity" that will ostensibly go toward "modernizing immigration posts throughout the country."
Related Stories:
· The New Tax on Tourists [La Nacion, in Spanish, via]
· Election Day in Argentina [Jaunted]
[Photo of Buenos Aires' Immigration Museum: Wikimedia]
Tags: Passports / Visas / Immigration / UK Travel / → All Tags
UK Stepping Up Its Immigration Game
It may soon get harder to visit the UK--at least if your a national of one of 11 countries now off the so-called visa-waiver list. The idea, says the UK Border Agency, is to keep tabs on those people who might endanger the country. But among the 11 are Brazil, Malaysia, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago, places that you might not associate with scary stuff.
The Border Agency says it plans to work with the governments in question to see if they can't stay on the visa-waiver list; a final decision won't be made until early 2009. But should risk reduction not be seen, even more foreign visitors will have to submit fingerprints and get a visa before arriving in the UK. The new rules would mean that Britain requires visas of 80 percent of the world's population.
When the US clamped down of visiting foreigners after 9/11, many countries didn't appreciate it. In probably the most famous show of displeasure, Brazil decided to charge Americans $100 per visa starting in 2004 in retaliation for what its citizens had to pay to visit the states. A pro-tourism group in the UK is worried the same thing might happen to the British as a result of the ever-widening visa net.
Related Stories:
· Higher Walls to Fortress Britain [Economist]
· UK Border Agency Global Visa Review [Official Site]
· Europe Wants Your Fingerprints [Jaunted]
Tags: Europe Travel / Immigration / → All Tags
Europe Wants Your Fingerprints
We might have been excited about passport free travel within the European Union, but actually getting into Europe might prove a bit more troublesome in the coming years.
The European Commission--basically the government of Europe--has begun discussions on requiring all visitors entering the EU to submit to fingerprinting and perhaps other biometric checks such as digital photos or iris scans. Some critics are unimpressed, like Privacy International, which said:
It's boys with toys. They want to have the toys the Americans have.
Whatever the decision, such a system wouldn't be implemented until 2015 at the earliest, so we shouldn't have to suffer US-style immigration queuing in Europe just yet.
Related Stories:
· Europe Wants Visitors Fingerprinted [USA Today]
· Put Away Your Passport in Europe [Jaunted]
· UK to USA: Drop Dead [Jaunted]
[Photo: Swirlyarts]
Tags: United States Travel / Immigration / Travel Media / → All Tags
UK to USA: Drop Dead
We might've named the United States the destination of the year for 2007, but the UK Times says "No thanks" to an American vacation in '08. After all, says writer Matt Rudd, you can get a better gaucho experience in Spain or Argentina, gamble on a wilder vacay in Macao, find a cooler road trip in Australia and ski easier in St. Moritz. And all without the hassles of the American customs and immigration officers!
A preflight e-interrogation, epic queues at immigration, thin-lipped questioning from aggressive border guards and an outside chance of a rubber-gloved rectal rummage are all part of the fun. So, if Chertoff and Co. want to tighten Fortress America further, it's time we considered other more welcoming holiday options. Such as Iran or North Korea.
Guess that warm and fuzzy tourist-luring video of Niagara Falls isn't doing the trick.
Related Stories:
· Travel to America? No Thanks. [UK Times]
· 2007 Awards: Destination of the Year [Jaunted]
· Immigration Video Totally Boring, Inaccurate [Jaunted]
· United States Travel coverage [Jaunted]
Tags: Europe Travel / Passports / Immigration / → All Tags
Put Away Your Passport in Europe
Attention all drug traffickers and people smugglers across Europe: Things are changing on Friday. The next stage of the Schengen Agreement will come into effect and that means that a whole bunch of border crossings will disappear.
The biggest changes will be between Western and Eastern European countries, like on the border between Germany and Poland, where the passport checkers and border police will be out of work and replaced simply by signs welcoming you to the next country. On the other hand, borders on the outside of the new Europe, like those leading to Russia, will be tightened up to stop the wrong things (and the wrong people) getting into the European Union.
We should be happy that there won't be long queues of cars waiting to cross borders or the annoyance of having to get off a bus for a search each time you reach a new country, but we're kind of sad that we're going to be missing out on pretty passport stamps.
Related Stories:
· Passport-Free Future to Blow Dust from Old Europe [Reuters]
· Europe Travel coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: mezzoblue]
Tags: Tourism Marketing / Immigration / YouTube / → All Tags
"Welcome: Portraits of America" Video Totally Boring, Inaccurate
Isn't Canada America great?
And we thought it was tough enough visiting the US, getting strip searched by customs and waiting in endless passport control lines. Now you can also be bored to tears by the new video Disney has donated to US Customs and Border Protection! (They've disabled video embedding on YouTube, which explains the still above.)
The idea is to introduce visitors to the United States with something a bit more lighthearted than getting fingerprinted and photographed. The video is on view at George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Washington Dulles, which together served almost 11 million international arrivals and departures in 2005.
There's plenty to poke fun at, but watch for the smirking guy in a suit at the 1:20 mark; he's like a low-rent Gordon Gekko. Visitors from more conservative cultures will surely appreciate the Vegas showgirl in her dressing room and the shots of babes in bikinis. And the panorama of Niagara Falls is a true classic. (You know, since the falls are in Canada.)
Also, everyone in the video speaks English--just like in the States!
Related Stories:
· The Welcome to America Video [Budget Travel]
· Welcome: Portraits of America Video [YouTube]
· The United States: Not As Bad As You Think [Jaunted]
· United States Travel coverage [Jaunted]
Tags: Food / Immigration / → All Tags
Head for the Border (with Cheese)
Immigration is a hot button topic here in the U.S., but U.S. Customs still manages to protect us from all manner of scary fruits and sausages. Anyone who's even seen the sniffer dogs at the airport baggage claim can attest to that. But they're watching out for devil-foods at land-crossing borders too, as evidenced by a recent bust in New Mexico. The contraband? Eighty-eight pounds of cheese.
The cheese was discovered after border agents X-rayed the truck carrying it. The truck and cheese were confiscated because the driver did not declare his dairy-based cargo. Agents said that it was the strangest bust since 2003, when they seized 800 pounds of bologna being smuggled across the border.
The moral of the story? Always declare your lunch meats and cheeses at the border.
[Image via foodmuse/Flickr]
Related Stories:
· Border Cops Nab Smuggler [Yahoo!]
Tags: Immigration / Customs / Travel Tips / → All Tags
How Not to Import Ivory
If you've been accosted by Rusty the customs beagle at Newark airport because of that banana (or sausage) you didn't finish eating on your flight into the U.S. from abroad, you already know that there are certain things that are a no-go to bring into the country. What else can't you bring with you? Beyond the Cuban cigars that you've carefully hidden in your dirty socks, of course.
Well, according to AskMen.com, there's a whole host of things that you can't bring in. Most of them are unlikely to be a problem for you on the basis of cost: more than 250 grams of caviar or tusks of ivory. Also, no hookahs! Fine, U.S. Customs, make us find another centerpiece for our living room. Another thing to look out for: meds that you purchased abroad. The U.S. won't tolerate you getting accustomed to, say, Canadian pharmacies. Nope, it's Plan D for our old folks or the grave.
Now if you'll excuse us, we have to figure out how to fit a hookah into our socks.
[Image via maharon/Flickr]
Related Stories:
· Blacklisted Souvenirs [AskMen.com]
· Pass the Hookah on the Left-Hand Side [Jaunted]
