Saturday, January 03, 2009

New rules for Green Card holders

The Department of Homeland Security will start fingerprinting and taking photos of green card holders, just like other visa holders, starting January 18. It is called an expansion of the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program (US VISIT)" and the reason seems to be to identify permanent residents and noncitizens with fraudulent documents. I don't know... maybe it's easier to forge a green card than an American passport - or is this the first step to start fingerprinting even the citizens?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out next time I travel and how much longer it will take to go through immigration at my usual point of entry into the US, Chicago O'Hare, when I travel to Sweden next time.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm... I'm a green card holder and as far as I know they already have my fingerprint and photo. Not sure what else they can take. They have everything on me already, but my DNA. But maybe that's next?

Ulrika said...

Vad dom hittar på... Men precis som Peter, har jag redan foto och fingeravtryck taget. Däremot undrar jag som befinner mig i Sverige nu, om jag måste skaffa nytt svenskt pass innan jag reser tillbaks till USA. Mitt är inte biometriskt, men spelar det någon roll om jag kommer till USA med Green CArd och amerikanskt körkort? Tänkte kanske att du vet som har pendelkort kontinenterna emellan.

JaCal said...

Peter - yes, all fingers - not just one (or do they take all in immigration))? Sigh... next step would be leaving DNA or maybe a "under the skin" chip??

Ulrika - samma här men det har tydligen ingen betydelse. Jag har inte heller biometric - jag är inte tillräckligt säker på att vara källa - men eftersom man är green card holder och passet är utfärdat innan ändringen om biometric pass kom ska det nog gå. Men har du tid och lust kan du ju passa på att fixa ditt pass i Sverige - det tar ju bara 5 dagar. Så slipper du fixa när du väl är i USA - för det är ju otrolgit mycket mer komplicerat här nu.

Anonymous said...

They didn't get all my fingers for the Greencard, but since I'm applying for citizenship they did get all 10 fingers for that. Yeay! No dental records or DNA yet though.

Anonymous said...

next step...a microchip under your skin!!!welcomne to america baby!

JaCal said...

Peter J - I'm pretty sure I left all mine at the time for the Green card thing - but then - there were so many steps and forms and things I might have forgotten. I'm just waiting for them to want my DNA...

Anonymous - ;-)

Anonymous said...

Dear All

I do not know why you people are joking about finger prints and the stuff, I deeply believe that the Authorties should take all the necessary measurements for securing and procting the Country

Samir Tadros
Green Card Holder

JaCal said...

Samir - we'll, you need to keep a sense of humor. I'm sure everyone agrees that there need to be precautions. But joking about it can be away to deal with the extra hazzle you have to be put through.

Anonymous said...

Yeah Samir, like JaCal says "keep a sense of humor.

Otherwise people will believe you and then the authorities will take all the necessary measures to secure and protect the Country (not the citizens) and put everyone in cages. That way, no person can do wrong. ;)