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The U.S. will
begin implementing "the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator
Technology" which commonly known as the US-VISIT program in January 2004.
The President & CEO of the World Shipping Council, Christopher Koch said the
statutory deadlines are tight, and the information systems issues involved
are very challenging, so it has come as no surprise that Department of
Homeland Security was falling behind in implementing the program.
The Department has therefore chosen to roll the program out in phases, he
said in a paper on Maritime Security at the Panama Canal Authority's
Conference recently.
This means that US-VISIT's application to foreign seafarers seeking shore
privileges, signing off, signing on, and transiting from one vessel to
another in the United States will be fairly limited at first.
Foreign seafarers will, however, have to comply with the program from
January 5, 2004, when flying into and departing the United States by plane.
Koch said the U.S. government has terminated its use of crew list visas, and
now requires each seafarer to obtain an individual visa from a U.S. embassy
or consulate effective last August.
Because of both the general requirement that visa applicants be interviewed
and backlogs in processing visas at U.S. embassies and consulates -
particularly in seafarer producing countries, it is probable that seafarers
may find that they cannot get a visa in time to sail.
This can result in vessels arriving in U.S. ports with crew members aboard
who do not have valid individual seafarer visas.
In such cases, they will be unable to obtain shore privileges, and the
vessel operator may incur additional costs of guards at the gangway. It may
also result in difficulties for ship operators in scheduling signing
off/signing on seafarers in U.S. ports.
Koch also said effective early next year, crew member information will also
be required to be submitted electronically 96 hours in advance of arrival to
CBP via its Advance Passenger Information System (APIS).
Today information on all crew members is transmitted electronically only to
the Coast Guard 96 hours in advance of a vessel's arrival in a U.S. port,
and upon arrival to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The crew member information is used to screen these individuals through
government information systems.
Both agencies and the industry agree that there should be a "single window"
for the advance electronic filing of such information that can be shared
among government agencies.
Yet both agencies continue to develop separate procedures and information
systems, and the "single window" remains elusive.
However, World Shipping Council has been working with the government and
urging it to establish a single mechanism to file this information, and we
will continue to advocate that this be done in 2004.
Koch also question about what role, if any, the new proposed International
Labor Organization (ILO) seafarer credential may have in the United States.
He said although the U.S. government participated in the negotiations at the
ILO that developed the new proposed seafarer credential, it was unable to
clearly define what its objectives were in these negotiations, and cannot
today articulate what purpose would be served by the new document, nor
whether the ILO agreement will be sent to the Senate for ratification.
Seafarers still will need a passport and an individual visa with biometric
identifiers that are not compatible with the proposed new ILO document's,
and the VISIT program is the system that - also using biometric identifiers
that are incompatible with the proposed ILO document - will record entry and
exit from the country.
As a result, it appears that the ILO document would serve no role as a
travel document in the U.S. Some non- Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
government officials have alluded to the possibility that the card might be
used to expedite seafarers' individual visas, but there has been no action
on this and no decision from DHS.
The industry and other nations are obviously interested if there is a reason
to implement this new credentialing agreement, and none has yet been
articulated for the U.S. trades.
We hope that DHS will address this issue in the near future. As noted above,
the industry recognizes the need for effective security measures and
supports the government's efforts to achieve that goal said Koch.
Koch also stressed that the World Shipping council do hope that, in 2004,
the uncoordinated and duplicative processes governing seafarers arriving in
the United States can be remedied, and that policy makers will recognize
that the totality of all these various measures can cause significant
difficulties and constraints for honest seafarers, who are in many respects
a first line of defense in the maritime security effort.
All these measures and rules affecting seafarers are undertaken by the US
government to ensure that vessels do not become a pathway for terrorists to
enter the country said Koch. |
