The U.S. Government has started implementing the US VISIT (Visitors & Immigration Status Indicator Technology) program on all major airports and some sea ports from January 5, 2004.  In December 2003, the US Government announced the suspension of the domestic part of the NSEERS registration program, which meant that all Pakistanis whose 30-day and annual registration deadlines fell after December 2, 2003, did not have to report to immigration officers in the U.S. for registration deadlines.

 

2.            In the first two days of the implementation of the VISIT program, it has become clear that the US authorities could introduce only the entry part of the VISIT program.  The exit part is introduced only on experimental/voluntary basis at a few ports.  However, for the Pakistani nationals and other NSEER countries the exit registration remains compulsory.  In case of any non-compliance the onus will be on the defaulting individual.  The Embassy strongly urges the Pakistani community in the US to ensure their registration on exit.   The  community is advised to comply with this requirement even if they have to miss a flight.

 

3.            In the past, whereas there had been no confusion in the entry part of the NSEERS process, unfortunately a lot of Pakistanis had ignored the requirement of registering while exiting from the United States.  This had led to a lot of unfortunate incidents where such Pakistanis were denied entry on return to the US.

 

4.            Please seek advice on registration from the immigration officials if necessary.  Do not rely on information from the travel industry representatives at ports of exit.     We have noticed that in most of the cases they themselves are ill-informed. 

 

5.            In case of any further inquiries, please email the Embassy at: info@embassyofpakistan.org

 

6.            Kindly disseminate this information to as many community members as possible.