Quicker process sought for visitor fingerprinting

By B.J. Reyes
Associated Press

Federal and state officials are working on reducing the time international travelers to Hawai'i spend waiting for IDs to be checked under a new program that fingerprints and photographs all foreigners who enter the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said yesterday.

Meanwhile, Honolulu is one of about a dozen U.S. cities that will test a procedure that tracks foreigners as they leave the country, officials said. Testing in Honolulu is expected to begin next month.

Ridge and other members of the Homeland Security Department briefed state officials on the progress of the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program yesterday.

The program, known as US-VISIT, requires all applicants for U.S. visas to be electronically fingerprinted and photographed. Their information is then stored in a database instantly accessible by federal agents checking IDs of travelers at U.S. entry points.

Although the process is designed to add just a few seconds to a traveler's waiting time before entering the country, travelers to Hawai'i have experienced longer delays because international flights arrive at Honolulu International Airport at roughly the same time: between 7 and 11 a.m. on weekdays, Ridge said.

One way to shorten the wait time would be to stagger arrival times of international flights, Ridge said. Scott Ishikawa, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said the idea will be considered.