GAO: Visa Waiver Pre-Registration Program Will Cause Backlogs

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has commented on the program announced recently by USCIS which aims to pre-register all travelers to the U.S. coming from Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries.  We wrote extensively about the program earlier in June.

Under the new program, which is optional until January, when it becomes mandatory for all of VWP travelers from 27 countries, all travelers to the U.S. must pre-register before traveling to the U.S. through an online system by entering personal information such as passport number, intended dates of travel, etc.  If the system rejects the pre-registration, the traveler must apply for a visa at the U.S. consulate.

The GAO estimates that between 1% and 5% of the travelers could be rejected by the online pre-registration system. This amounts to an estimated 500,000 additional visa applications.  Given the relatively short timeline between announcement (early June 2008), the optional launch date (August 2008)  and the mandatory cut-off date (January 2009), there will  be many travelers who either 1) do not know about the pre-registration until shortly before their travel or 2) do not apply for pre-registration until a point when a rejection from the pre-registration system would make it impracticable to schedule a visa appointment and apply for a U.S. visa.

Homeland Security and the State Department indicate that they are aware of the potential of increased demand in visas early next year, but they say they are prepared to handle it.

We are advising our VWP clients  to apply as early as possible for their pre-screening clearance and be flexible in case they need to schedule a visa appointment and interview.  We also urge our clients to check the Consulate Wait Times website for some idea on how long it takes to schedule and attend a visa interview.