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U.S. TO TOUGHEN BORDER RULES FOR MOST COMMONWEALTH CITIZENS
WebPosted Sun Nov 3 00:15:09 2002
OTTAWA--Washington is preparing new regulations that would make it
harder for citizens of most Commonwealth countries to get into the
United States.
Under the proposed rules, any Commonwealth citizen who lives in Canada
but who is not a Canadian citizen will need valid travel documents to
enter the U.S.
Checking cars at Canada-U.S. border
Right now, Canadian citizens do not require passports or other papers to
pass through customs. Most people born in other Commonwealth countries
who now live here enjoy the same ease of passage when heading south.
But the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has drafted a
new policy that will force visitors who are not Canadian citizens to
produce travel documents.
According to an internal INS report obtained by CBC News, the United
States will soon require valid passports from travellers living in
Canada who are actually citizens of the United Kingdom, Australia, New
Zealand, and Singapore.
Foreign nationals living in Canada from about 50 other Commonwealth
countries will need both a passport and a visa to enter the United
States. This proposal includes citizens of India, Pakistan, South
Africa, Jamaica, and Trinidad.
INS proposals obtained by CBC
The new rules are part of increased security measures since the Sept.
11, 2001 attacks against the United States. They're designed to help
safeguard the country from terrorists, according to the INS document.
"They're just creating and inventing rules left, right and centre," says
Heather Segal, the head of the Canadian chapter of the U.S. Immigration
Lawyers' Association. "They're creating backlogs. It's a big problem."
Some people in Canada are annoyed about the proposed new rules,
including athletes who travel a lot.
"A Commonwealth country is a Commonwealth country," complains Troy Rose,
a landed immigrant from Australia. "We're not evil, we're not bad, we're
not, you know, bombers or anything like that."
But the INS document says some Commonwealth countries have high rates of
"immigration fraud and abuse," and tougher security measures are
required to fight terrorism.
An official at the Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa described the
regulations as "disappointing and unpalatable," but no official protest
is planned until the proposals take effect.
FROM OCT. 31, 2002: U.S. backs down on photographing, fingerprinting
some Canadians
Last month, Washington backed down from a plan to begin fingerprinting
some Canadian citizens who travel to the U.S. The new rules would have
applied to people born in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria or Sudan.
Copyright © 2002 CBC All Rights Reserved
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