GAO Analyzes the Visa Waiver Program

The Government Accountability Office has released its report on the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) and its implementation and operation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The report seeks to assess the operation of the program and to analyze DHS’s efforts to expand it.  The GAO report found, among other things that although the government is trying to expand the VWP aggressively by discussing it with a number of countries who are hopeful to join it, there are a number of deficiencies which have created confusion among U.S. government officials who negotiate with candidate countries and has set unreasonable expectations among the countries themselves.

Membership in VWP is granted to countries which have between 3 and 10 percent visa refusal rates and which have 97 percent return rate, meaning that 97 percent of the nationals of a particular country who enter the United States must return to the home country.  In order to allow a country to join VWP, DHS must be able to certify that a particular country has 97 percent return rate,.  However, DHS is unable to properly account for those who remain in the U.S. beyond their authorized period of stay.

In addition, for DHS to to maintain its authority to admit certain countries into the program, it must incorporate biometric indicators (such as fingerprints) into the air exit system by July 1, 2009. However, DHS is unlikely to meet this timeline due to several unresolved issues. In addition, DHS does not fully consider countries’ overstay rates when assessing illegal immigration risks in the Visa Waiver Program.

The GAO report goes into great detail in outlining DHS’s performance under the VWP.  It is a helpful read for anyone who is interested or affected by the Visa Waiver Program or the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).