Well the Americans have finally lost it.

The new visa proceedure is the last straw. Yes, we all agree that more needs to be done to protect us from terrorism. Yes, we should introduce biometric passports, yes we should be more able to prove we are who we say we are. I'm glad of these changes to security.

But one issuing office per country??? If you want a visa, you have to go to the US embassy in London, or nip across the Irish Sea to the one in Dublin. And if you have a family or are travelling in a group, you ALL need to go to the embassy, take an interview, have an iris scan and fingerprints taken and then hand over £67¹ for the priveledge. One office? In London! What were they thinking? My parents live about as far away from London on the mainland as you can go. How are they supposed to cope? My aunt lives in Orkney. She has enough trouble getting to Aberdeen to see her son in one go.

Queueing

Conservative estimates say that 20,000+ people per month are going to need one of these visas² until the new passports are put in place. Have you seen the size of the US embassy? 20,000 people per month on top of the number they already deal with? They'll never fit in the place.

It's easy to see that whoever came up with this new rule about needing a visa has never had to queue in a post office for their car tax disc. You can probably already picture the scene; the queue is going to be stretching all the way out the door, down the street and around the corner. Then down that street, round the next corner and over the bridge. Police are going to have to be drafted in to keep the queue orderly³.

Most countries are going to be introducing biometric passports in the next few years anyway, this new visa system only makes it more complicated. It makes policies from the UK home office look relatively well thought out.

Fallout and Consequences

Some countries are taking what seem like tit-for-tat retaliation, making all US travellers be photographed and fingerprinted upon entry. Brazil is one example. It can take up to 20 minutes for a US citizen to get through customs there.

Many travel companies are predicting that holiday makers will simply go elsewhere for their holiday and avoid all the fuss completely. And who could blame them⁴? I have travelled to the US on several occasions. I never fly from any London airport, because it is too damned expensive. I flew from Manchester and Newcastle.

Let's look at my new holiday plan.

So now, I have to travel all the way from Edinburgh to London, go to the embassy⁵, wait ages in line, get a very personal interview, have measurements taken, pay my £67⁶, get my visa (do you even get it the same day?), travel back to Manchester and book into a hotel, because I'll never be able to get a flight by the time I get there. Now I have to get up in the morning, get to the airport, get on my flight, get to the US and then have my body compared with the details on my visa.

Compare this with my old route.

Got on a plane in Edinburgh, landed in Manchester, caught connecting flight to US, landed in US, went through customs.

I could do all that without any overnight stays. I cannot see how I could possibly avoid one with the new 'detour' to London, and may even need two nights away from home.

The Funny Side

It reminds me of two old jokes:

When I flew to the US last, I was given a white card (part of the visa waiver) which asked many questions, including:

And I thought: 'Who in their right mind is ever going to put 'Yes' ?'

And as I was thinking this, I was told a story by the man sitting next to me about when a famous celebrity, it might have been Spike Milligan, had seen the same question, and had answered:

Related BBCi Links

• BBC News Online: US Security checks: Your reaction - Opinions about the new US visa requirements.

Atlantic Cable

05.02.04 Front Page

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