Visa Waiver Program - History

History

Congress passed legislation in 1986 to create the Visa Waiver Program with the aim of facilitating tourism and short-term business visits to the United States, and allowing the United States Department of State to focus consular resources on addressing higher risks. The United Kingdom became the first country to participate in the Visa Waiver Program in July 1988, followed by Japan on 16 December 1988. In October 1989, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and West Germany were added to the VWP.

In 1991, more European countries joined the Program - Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway, San Marino and Spain - as well as New Zealand (the first country from Oceania). In 1993, Brunei became the second Asian country to be admitted to the Program.

On 1 April 1995, Ireland was added to the VWP. In 1996, Australia and Argentina (the first Latin American country) joined, although Argentina was later removed in 2002. On 30 September 1997, Slovenia was added. On 9 August 1999, Portugal, Singapore and Uruguay joined the program, although Uruguay was subsequently removed in 2003.

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the George W. Bush Administration decided to tighten entry requirements into the United States, as a result of which legislation was passed requiring foreign visitors entering under the Visa Waiver Program to present a machine readable passport upon arrival starting from 1 October 2003. However, as a number of VWP still issued non-machine readable passports (for example, more than a third of French and Spanish passport holders held a non-machine readable version), the implementation of the new rule was postponed to 26 October 2004, with the exception of Belgian citizens, as there were concerns about the security and integrity of Belgian passports.

The George W. Bush Administration originally planned to require all visitors to the US under the Visa Waiver Program to hold a biometric passport starting from 26 October 2004 if their passport is issued on or after that date. However, after the requirement to have a machine readable passport was postponed to 26 October 2004, the biometric passport requirement subsequently had its implementation date moved to 26 October 2005, only to be further postponed by another year to 26 October 2006 at the request of the European Union, which raised concerns about the number of participating countries which would have been able to make the deadline.

Eventually, starting from 26 October 2006, travellers entering the US under the Visa Waiver Program have been required to present a biometric passport if their passport was issued on or after that date. When the new rule came into force on that day, three countries (Andorra, Brunei and Liechtenstein) had not yet started issuing biometric passports.

In November 2006, the George W. Bush Administration announced that plans for an "Electronic Travel Authorization" program (officially named "Electronic System for Travel Authorization") would be developed so that VWP travelers can give advance information on their travels to the United States. In return, they will be given authorization electronically to travel to the United States, although it does not guarantee admission to the United States. This program will be modeled on the Electronic Travel Authority scheme that has been used in Australia for many years.

While all participating nations must provide reciprocal visa-free travel for U.S. citizens (usually ninety days for tourism or business purposes), Australia is the only nation that requires U.S. citizens to apply for an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA), which in fact is a visa that is stored electronically in a computer system operated by the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC). The ETA has replaced visa-free travel to Australia, and the only nation accorded visa-free travel rights to Australia is New Zealand under the auspices of the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement (rather than not requiring a visa, NZ citizens are accorded one automatically upon arrival). A passport holder must apply for and purchase an ETA through an authorized travel agency, airline, or via the official DIAC website before departing for Australia. However, as the ETA process is relatively free of formality, the United States recognizes it as the equivalent of visa-free travel. Citizens of the European Union and other European nations must apply for an eVisitor electronic travel authorization for travel to Australia, which is similar to the ETA program, but free. Australian government policy in this respect is similar to U.S. policy, which similarly requires Visa Waiver Program participants to apply for an ESTA.