For Immediate Release
14 June 2005

Amendment to the advanced passenger information system (APIS)

Paris (14 June) - ACTE is informing its members that the US Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, 7 April 2005 published the Final Rule of the Electronic Transmission of Passenger and Crew Manifests for Vessels and Aircraft requiring airlines to divulge more personal information on passengers.

This final rule, effective 6 June 2005, amends former Bureau of Customs and Border Protection regulations pertaining to the filing of commercial vessel and aircraft manifests for passengers and crew members.

The previous requirements were listed in the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA), Public Law 107-71, 115 Stat. 597. Section 115 of the ATSA, amending 49 U.S.C. 44909.

The final rule increases the elements of passenger information that airlines should provide electronically via the advanced passenger information system (APIS) in order to "ensure aviation and vessel safety and protecting national security."

The required information carriers must provide are (a) complete name; (b) date of birth; (c) citizenship; (d) gender; (e) passport number and country of issuance; (f) travel document type and date of expiration; (g) country of residence; (h) United States visa number, date, and place of issuance; (i) alien registration number; (j) United States address while in the United States; and (k) such other information the Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of the Treasury determines as being necessary.

The rule states that "With this final rule [...] crew member and non-crew member manifests are now required no later than 60 minutes prior to departure. Last minute crew changes (updating manifests within 60 minutes of departure) will be accommodated only upon approval by TSA. Failure to obtain timely approval may result in possible denial of flight clearance or diversion of the flight to another port, as appropriate. "

Information such as "United States address while in the United States" and "country of residence" are additions to the previous rule. As neither the traveller's US destination address nor the country of residence is obtainable from the machine-readable zone of the travel document, air carriers date to comply has been extended to 180 days after 6 June 2005.

Travelling the US: Are you ready for the October 26th deadline?

ACTE is delighted to have contributed to what is likely to be shifty in policy and a drop of the U.S. 26 October 2005 deadline requiring travellers from all 27 Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries to obtain a U.S. visa if their passports have been issued on or after October 26, 2005, and do not contain biometric identifiers. However some French and Italian may still need visas.

The U.S. requirement which will now probably be dropped was that passports issued prior to 26 October 2005 are not affected by this deadline and continue to qualify the bearer for visa-free travel, so long as the passport is machine-readable.

ACTE has gauged the impact this requirement will have on business travel to the U.S. from this region through in a recent survey.

Of the 52 responses received, 46 percent were from the segment representing travel managers and purchasing managers primarily headquartered in Europe (56 percent) with responsibility for travel & entertainment expense of more than 200 millions euros (30 percent).

It is striking to note that 79 percent of the respondents believe that many visa waiver passport nations will be unable to meet the deadline for new passports with biometric identifiers and will cause difficulties for any U.S. bound travellers from their companies.

Further, 25 percent said they would reduce trips for European employees to U.S. and 43 percent said this deadline will have negative impact on their business relations with the U.S.

Finally, 77 percent said they were concerned about the personal data the U.S. is requiring travellers to provide when entering the U.S.

ACTE remains vigilant become this latest change in U.S. requirement may now impose French and Italian holders of a passport issued after October to obtain visas since the U.S. now requires passports to contain digital photographs.

Both France and Italy issue passports that have laminated photographs.

Note: More information is available online at the following U.S. Government web sites:

Visa issues: http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/temp_1305.html

APIS: http://web.nbaa.org/public/ops/intl/apis/