# Visa Waiver Program



## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

WASHINGTON -- - The Travel Industry Association (TIA) heralded the official expansion of the U.S. government's new visa waiver program, which is estimated to bring approximately 1 million new visitors to the United States annually.

Overseas visitors to the United States spend more and stay longer than other travelers, spending an average of $4,000 per person, per trip. The United States welcomed two million fewer overseas visitors in 2007 than it did in 2000 - despite an extraordinarily weak U.S. dollar and an additional 35 million long-haul travelers worldwide.

"Adding friends and allies to the visa waiver program strengthens U.S. security, boosts America's vital public diplomacy efforts and stimulates U.S. economic growth," said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the Travel Industry Association. "TIA worked closely with the U.S. government to enact reforms that allow for the program's expansion with enhanced security measures, and we are pleased to see them take effect."

The program allows citizens from participating countries to travel to the United States for business or pleasure for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa. Starting today, travelers from seven new countries--the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta and the Republic of Korea (South Korea)--can travel to the United States without first obtaining a tourist visa.

"While today's expansion will benefit the economy, we still have a long way to go to regain the millions of travelers we have lost since 9/11," said Dow. "As the dollar gains strength and we experience a global financial downturn, the United States needs a clear strategy for welcoming more visitors in a highly competitive environment."

Additional expansion of the visa waiver program to qualified countries could come to a halt in 2009 if the Department of Homeland Security does not deploy a biometric system for confirming the exit of foreign visitors departing the United States. TIA strongly supports the exit requirement and is working with the entire travel community to devise a secure and efficient solution.

Travelers from the newly added countries must register before traveling through the new electronic system for travel authorization (ESTA), as part of new security procedures established for the expansion. ESTA is an automated system used to determine the eligibility of program visitors to travel to the United States and whether such travel poses any law enforcement or security risk. Travelers from all visa waiver countries will be required to participate in ESTA as of Jan.12.

The ESTA program is a relatively simple and effective way to strengthen U.S. security, and that of international travelers, while at the same time helping to preserve the visa waiver program. The travel community has called on the Department of Homeland Security to implement ESTA in a way that will not create unnecessary barriers to travel, such as informing foreign visitors about ESTA requirements through a large-scale education effort and increasing convenience by providing alternate means for travel authorization that are not Internet-based and are part of a typical travel-booking process.

SOURCE: Travel Industry Association press release.


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## Ghosty (Jan 17, 2005)

Yeeeaaahhh !!! More follks for our tax dollar to support when their VISA's expire and they decide not to leave but stay and take advantage of our free medical, school, and welfare systems...

Well at least they won't be lonely -- they'll join the ranks of the estimated other 38,000,000 unregistered aliens ... but I'm sure that these guys will be different...

From 2004 - 2007, 485000 people have came into the US with VISAS that has NOT left after the VISA expired .... so the TIA heralding in the new VISA Waiver program just doesn't really seem to excite me as much as it should i guess....


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## N7OQ (Jun 10, 2006)

Ghosty said:


> Yeeeaaahhh !!! More follks for our tax dollar to support when their VISA's expire and they decide not to leave but stay and take advantage of our free medical, school, and welfare systems...
> 
> Well at least they won't be lonely -- they'll join the ranks of the estimated other 38,000,000 unregistered aliens ... but I'm sure that these guys will be different...
> 
> From 2004 - 2007, 485000 people have came into the US with VISAS that has NOT left after the VISA expired .... so the TIA heralding in the new VISA Waiver program just doesn't really seem to excite me as much as it should i guess....


X2

I don't feel very Ducky about this!


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## LarryTheOutback (Jun 15, 2005)

On the other side of the coin, in 2006 there were 51.1 million international visitors to the U.S. (reference), with Canadians being 16 million (31%) of the visitors.

Given the exchange rate, we are an attractive tourism destination. Tourists spend money. We can use the money.

Another article says "Travel and tourism supported 8.3 million American jobs in 2006" and "Travel and tourism exports accounted for 7 percent of all U.S. exports and 26 percent of services exports."

Ed


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## garyb1st (Dec 6, 2007)

Ghosty said:


> Yeeeaaahhh !!! More follks for our tax dollar to support when their VISA's expire and they decide not to leave but stay and take advantage of our free medical, school, and welfare systems...
> 
> Well at least they won't be lonely -- they'll join the ranks of the estimated other 38,000,000 unregistered aliens ... but I'm sure that these guys will be different...
> 
> From 2004 - 2007, 485000 people have came into the US with VISAS that has NOT left after the VISA expired .... so the TIA heralding in the new VISA Waiver program just doesn't really seem to excite me as much as it should i guess....


Wow, 38,000,000. That's more than 1 in 10. What's the source of the number?


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

garyb1st said:


> Yeeeaaahhh !!! More follks for our tax dollar to support when their VISA's expire and they decide not to leave but stay and take advantage of our free medical, school, and welfare systems...
> 
> Well at least they won't be lonely -- they'll join the ranks of the estimated other 38,000,000 unregistered aliens ... but I'm sure that these guys will be different...
> 
> From 2004 - 2007, 485000 people have came into the US with VISAS that has NOT left after the VISA expired .... so the TIA heralding in the new VISA Waiver program just doesn't really seem to excite me as much as it should i guess....


Wow, 38,000,000. That's more than 1 in 10. What's the source of the number?
[/quote]

Wikipedia has a much lower number the 38,000,000 but still very high.

Illegal immigration to the United States refers to the act of foreign nationals violating U.S. immigration policies and national laws by immigrating to the United States without proper consent from the United States government.[1]

The illegal immigrant population of the United States is estimated to be about 12 million people.[2] According to a Pew Hispanic Center report, fifty-seven percent of undocumented immigrants are from Mexico, twenty-four percent are from other Latin American countries, nine percent are from Asia, six percent from Europe and Canada, and four percent from the rest of the world.[3]


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## Highlander96 (Mar 1, 2005)

CamperAndy said:


> Yeeeaaahhh !!! More follks for our tax dollar to support when their VISA's expire and they decide not to leave but stay and take advantage of our free medical, school, and welfare systems...
> 
> Well at least they won't be lonely -- they'll join the ranks of the estimated other 38,000,000 unregistered aliens ... but I'm sure that these guys will be different...
> 
> From 2004 - 2007, 485000 people have came into the US with VISAS that has NOT left after the VISA expired .... so the TIA heralding in the new VISA Waiver program just doesn't really seem to excite me as much as it should i guess....


Wow, 38,000,000. That's more than 1 in 10. What's the source of the number?
[/quote]

Wikipedia has a much lower number the 38,000,000 but still very high.

Illegal immigration to the United States refers to the act of foreign nationals violating U.S. immigration policies and national laws by immigrating to the United States without proper consent from the United States government.[1]

The illegal immigrant population of the United States is estimated to be about 12 million people.[2] According to a Pew Hispanic Center report, fifty-seven percent of undocumented immigrants are from Mexico, twenty-four percent are from other Latin American countries, nine percent are from Asia, six percent from Europe and Canada, and four percent from the rest of the world.[3]
[/quote]

I really wouldn't rely heavily on Wikipedia for accurate information.

This I can tell you this from fact.

I am working a money laundering case right now that involves people who are here illegally. Guess what, they had prior consent, but they overstayed their welcome. Regardless of what Wikipedia says, if you overstay a B1/B2 Visa, you are now illegal and are subject to IMMEDIATE DEPORTATION. Guess what, when we stop these people, the first thing they are going to get after their Miranda warning is a Notice to Appear before an immigration judge because of their illegal status in the UNITED STATES.

FWIW-

Tim


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## garyb1st (Dec 6, 2007)

Highlander96 said:


> Yeeeaaahhh !!! More follks for our tax dollar to support when their VISA's expire and they decide not to leave but stay and take advantage of our free medical, school, and welfare systems...
> 
> Well at least they won't be lonely -- they'll join the ranks of the estimated other 38,000,000 unregistered aliens ... but I'm sure that these guys will be different...
> 
> From 2004 - 2007, 485000 people have came into the US with VISAS that has NOT left after the VISA expired .... so the TIA heralding in the new VISA Waiver program just doesn't really seem to excite me as much as it should i guess....


Wow, 38,000,000. That's more than 1 in 10. What's the source of the number?
[/quote]

Wikipedia has a much lower number the 38,000,000 but still very high.

Illegal immigration to the United States refers to the act of foreign nationals violating U.S. immigration policies and national laws by immigrating to the United States without proper consent from the United States government.[1]

The illegal immigrant population of the United States is estimated to be about 12 million people.[2] According to a Pew Hispanic Center report, fifty-seven percent of undocumented immigrants are from Mexico, twenty-four percent are from other Latin American countries, nine percent are from Asia, six percent from Europe and Canada, and four percent from the rest of the world.[3]
[/quote]

I really wouldn't rely heavily on Wikipedia for accurate information.

This I can tell you this from fact.

I am working a money laundering case right now that involves people who are here illegally. Guess what, they had prior consent, but they overstayed their welcome. Regardless of what Wikipedia says, if you overstay a B1/B2 Visa, you are now illegal and are subject to IMMEDIATE DEPORTATION. Guess what, when we stop these people, the first thing they are going to get after their Miranda warning is a Notice to Appear before an immigration judge because of their illegal status in the UNITED STATES.

FWIW-

Tim
[/quote]

Tim, agree on the Wiki stats or anything else found on the net for that matter. That's why I check the site/source before passing on the info. But it makes me wonder. How do they count illegals anyway? I don't think the census bureau asks that question.









Now to the more important subject. Money laundering. Once you guys get that stuff cleaned up, can you send some this way.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Well Wikipedia may not be 100% on 100% of the items they post, I would have to say they are a fairly close answer to 99.99% of the items you may have questions on. The fact that they are peer reviewed and subject to editing from both the left and right on any subject they tend to find and maintain a consensus better then some solely left or right wing organizations.

The only issue I was posting the data on was the 38,000,000 quoted illegals. It was questioned since that is over 10 % of the USA population and I tend to agree that that is too high. So I looked and one of the first hits on Google was the wiki numbers of 12,000,000 illegals. Still too high but much more believable.


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## jcat67 (Aug 8, 2008)

garyb1st said:


> Yeeeaaahhh !!! More follks for our tax dollar to support when their VISA's expire and they decide not to leave but stay and take advantage of our free medical, school, and welfare systems...
> 
> Well at least they won't be lonely -- they'll join the ranks of the estimated other 38,000,000 unregistered aliens ... but I'm sure that these guys will be different...
> 
> From 2004 - 2007, 485000 people have came into the US with VISAS that has NOT left after the VISA expired .... so the TIA heralding in the new VISA Waiver program just doesn't really seem to excite me as much as it should i guess....


Wow, 38,000,000. That's more than 1 in 10. What's the source of the number?
[/quote]

Wikipedia has a much lower number the 38,000,000 but still very high.

Illegal immigration to the United States refers to the act of foreign nationals violating U.S. immigration policies and national laws by immigrating to the United States without proper consent from the United States government.[1]

The illegal immigrant population of the United States is estimated to be about 12 million people.[2] According to a Pew Hispanic Center report, fifty-seven percent of undocumented immigrants are from Mexico, twenty-four percent are from other Latin American countries, nine percent are from Asia, six percent from Europe and Canada, and four percent from the rest of the world.[3]
[/quote]

I really wouldn't rely heavily on Wikipedia for accurate information.

This I can tell you this from fact.

I am working a money laundering case right now that involves people who are here illegally. Guess what, they had prior consent, but they overstayed their welcome. Regardless of what Wikipedia says, if you overstay a B1/B2 Visa, you are now illegal and are subject to IMMEDIATE DEPORTATION. Guess what, when we stop these people, the first thing they are going to get after their Miranda warning is a Notice to Appear before an immigration judge because of their illegal status in the UNITED STATES.

FWIW-

Tim
[/quote]

Tim, agree on the Wiki stats or anything else found on the net for that matter. That's why I check the site/source before passing on the info. But it makes me wonder. How do they count illegals anyway? I don't think the census bureau asks that question.









Now to the more important subject. Money laundering. Once you guys get that stuff cleaned up, can you send some this way.








[/quote]

And I thought it was inflation and the economy making the dollar shrink....apparently it's the laundering.


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