Posted on: Tuesday, September 21, 2004

State preps for new screening

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i and federal officials are taking steps to ensure new security requirements beginning this month run smoothly for foreign visitors.

Starting Sept. 30, foreigners from 27 countries, including Japan, who can travel in the United States without a visa will be fingerprinted and photographed as part of a new federal security program. Officials had worried that the new requirements, announced by the State Department in April, would create longer waits at Hawai'i airports and discourage tourists.

Perhaps the biggest challenge, according to Gov. Linda Lingle's tourism liaison, Marsha Wienert, is that most international flights arrive in Honolulu between 7 and 11 a.m. To handle the influx, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have agreed to staff all 52 inspection booths during the busiest times, she said.

Wienert said airlines are working to ensure passengers complete necessary forms before they reach the inspectors, and that interpreters should be available. She said tourism marketing contractors had been educating consumers about the new procedure.

"Our goal is that no one wait in line for more than 30 minutes," Wienert said.

Most international flights arrive in Honolulu. Kona has one daily flight from Japan.

Under the US-VISIT program, passed by Congress in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Department of Homeland Security takes digital fingerprints and photographs of every visitor coming into the United States on a visa.

By Sept. 30, the federal government also will fingerprint and scan visitors from countries on the "visa waiver" program. That includes about 13 million people entering the United States from the 27 visa waiver countries each year. Last year, about 1.3 million Japanese visitors came to Hawai'i.

To accommodate any backlog, officials have set up an "aloha lounge" above gates 31 to 34 in the international terminal where passengers can sit, use the restroom and maybe get something to eat and drink while they wait, Weinert said. Passengers also might be steered to a rest area above the U.S. Customs and Immigration facility.

"We wanted to be proactive rather than letting it blow up," Wienert said.

State Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa agreed. "Once they get the go-ahead to go the customs office, we're going to whisk them right away downstairs," he said.

"I think our mission is to make sure that nobody is just standing around. That's when passengers get irritated, because they're standing around with nothing to do. We just wanted to give them a place to relax."

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 535-2470.