A Briggs Passport & Visa Expeditors

If you travel domestically and have Southwest service in your city, there is lots of news going on with Southwest. We think Southwest is a great company that has kept customer service at the top of its priorities. They have been consistent and stayed out trouble, unlike most other U.S. airlines.

Southwest is facing more competition and like all the airlines, they are being hurt by record high oil prices. First of all, it is changing its A, B, C “cattle call” boarding. It has been testing in San Antonio a system where if you get an A boarding pass, it is broken down into four number groupings and you line up in the A line depending on your number. We used it in San Antonio and it is less stressful and a big improvement .

The company this week is rolling out the new boarding process nationwide, so you don’t have to line up long before boarding and just stand in line and add to your travel fatigue. It’s much easier. You’ll like it. It is to your advantage to get your boarding pass as soon as possible to get the lowest number in your A, B, or C line.

Southwest is also preparing to give preferred treatment to customers who pay more for their tickets. Southwest will furnish its waiting areas with plush leather chairs with electrical outlets for computers and cell phones.

Southwest is also planning to intiatiate flights to Mexico and the Caribbean.

Many of the airlines that came out of bankruptcy (Delta, United, etc.) cut their labor cost, got rid of unprofitable gate fees and unwanted plane leases. This caused Southwest’s cost advantage to go away, and its crews are now the highest paid in the industry.

Southwest Airlines has reorganized its fare classes into three categories, including a new Business Select “product” that encompasses refundable fares and guarantees those customers would be among the first to board. Business Select also provides bonus loyalty program credits and a free in-flight cocktail. Southwest also changed the way it shows fares on its Web site and added a new category to its frequent flyer program.

Named the A-List, the new top level recognizes the carrier’s frequent customers and automatically checks them in 24 hours before departure, giving them the best seats in the first boarding group.

Southwest’s CEO Gary Kelly fielded questions yesterday, November 8th, regarding Business Select fares, corporate travel sales efforts and business travel demand. Here is a quote from his comments.

Are these Business Select fares higher than any fares you currently have?

Yes they are. We have taken our existing fare structure and we are adding to that for the added value that is being offered through the Business Select product. It is not a fee. It is important to make that distinction. It is a fare, and of course, fares will vary. Arguably, they can vary based on day of week and time of day, and certainly they vary market to market. At least for now, we have some introductory Business Select fares that are as little as $10 more than our full fares, and range up to $25 and $30 higher, roughly. It is not a static fee across the board in every market. That is not the idea.
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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

French public transport will stop in France at midnight tonight. In addition, utility unions will probably limit electricity production and theaters will close. This is the second strike in a month.

The protest against President Sarkozy’s plan to reduce pensions will include teachers and civil servants starting next week.

This will not be a pleasant time to visit France. Unions there like to inconvenience as many people as possible, so they can get what they want quicker.

Seven unions called for a strike of unknown duration at the operator of Paris’s metros, buses and tramways, so be ready for this if you are traveling to Paris. Although he said, “We want to keep this strike as short as possible,” Christian Mahieux, a union leader at SNCF, the national rail company, is not someone who really cares based on our past impression of his actions, especially since Xavier Bertrand, the Labor Minister was quoted as saying “The government has no other choice but to give in.”

Strikers will demonstrate tomorrow in the afternoon in Paris, the local Paris authorities reported. Civil servants, teachers and public workers have set a strike for Nov. 20

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

The Libyan government denied entry to tourists because they didn’t have an Arabic translation of their passport — even though they had valid visas.
The sudden unannounced change in entry rules was revealed after planeloads of European tourists were forced to return home after touchdown in Libya. The government in Tripoli has still not officially announced the change and government officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

The development is a reflection of a government that lives in terror of its “leader,” who is an impetuous, pathological killer trying to get in good graces with the West, even as he continues to follow his whims and murderous ways

Eighteen French nationals were stranded at Tripoli airport since Sunday night, and France’s ambassador to Libya intervened in their behalf and they were then allowed to leave.

172 French citizens who arrived Sunday were not allowed to get off their charter flight run by Air Mediterranee which returned to Paris. Then 83 French citizens in Libya were not able to leave because of the rule change applies to tourists exiting Libya.

37 passengers were sent back to Zurich Sunday on a Swiss flight, also because they were not carrying Arabic-language translation of their passports.

He said the airline’s office in Libya was caught unaware of the new rules, which came into force just hours before the Swiss plane landed Sunday.

We suggest that persons planning to travel to Libya postpone their trip until this situation is cleared up.

Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

Twenty-eight shows on Broadway in New York City have closed because of a stagehands strike. No negotiations have been planned, so it could last a while.

If you are planning to travel to NYC to see shows, check beforehand to make sure the strike is over. A few shows like Xanadu are still open, but most are closed.

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

By E Cho

In the coldest month of the year, the hottest ticket in Japan, and maybe the entire world, is for the Sapporo Snow festival on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido. More than two million visitors from around the world descend on. Hokkaido’s capital to watch it transformed into the glistening, glittering, and gleaming world of a frozen fairyland.

For a week each February, the skyscrapers of Sapporo become upstaged by edifices and statues of frozen snow forming a second city in Odori Park and the streets at their feet. Ice sculptures of the past have depicted everything from ancient Japanese temples, samurais, and dragons to contemporary athletes, ice maidens, political figures, and fifty-foot high dinosaurs.

The current Snow Festival is the descendant of a much smaller 1950 festival, the effort of a group of Sapporo high school students who built six snow statues in Odori Park and so impressed the park’s visitors that the tradition continued. Five years later, the Japan Self-Defense Forces housed at Makomanai base introduced, as a training exercise, the technique for building the enormous snow sculptures typical of the Snow Festival today.

The Snow Festival Venues

Makomanai Base is now one of the three main venues for the Festival, and is the site of the biggest sculptures; the third site, where the ice carving competition is held, is in Sapporo’s Susukino district. During the 1972 Winter Olympic Games in Sapporo, the Snow Festival gained international acclaim, and the Snow Statue Competition began two years later.

The Snow Festival is truly a community effort, with citizen’s groups both creating ice sculptures and assisting tourists, especially the disabled. They also provide tourist information and act as interpreters for the flood of foreign guests. Hotel reservations for the Snow Festival should be made at least six months in advance.

Hotels near the Snow Festival

The Korakuen Hotel Sapporo offers four-star accommodations convenient to all of Sapporo’s parks and scenic areas, and is ideally situated for commercial travelers.

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Planning a trip to Japan? Depending on your length of stay, you might need a visa. Click here to check the visa requirements for Japan.

About The Author:

E Cho writes for Hotel Club Japan.

A recent study of business travelers shows definitively there is a risk of dangerous blod clots for persons traveling on long flights and frequent flyers who travel for longer periods of time.

Sitting still for long periods can cause a condition called deep vein thrombosis (D.V.T.). The study found that people who fly four hours or more have three times the risk of developing clots compared with periods when they did not travel.

D.V.T. occurs when a blood clot forms within the large deep veins of the body, usually in the leg. President Nixon had this condition during the time he was president. The NBC reporter David Bloom died of this condition during the U.S. invasion of Iraq because he had been standing for several days in a vehicle. In the condition, part of the clot can break off and travel to the lungs and cause a pulmonary embolism, a serious and potentially fatal condition.

The researchers, Frits R. Rosendaal and Suzanne C. Cannegieter of Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, tracked over 8,000 employees of large international organizations over a multi-year period. The results were published in the online journal PLoS Medicine; preliminary findings were reported in late June by the World Health Organization.

“We now know out of 4,500 people who fly, one will get a D.V.T. within eight weeks after travel,” Dr. Cannegieter said. The risk increases with the length and number of a flights in a short period.

Michael G. Reiff, a U.S. executive with Royal Dutch Shell, was hospitalized with D.V.T. after a flight from Houston to Amsterdam. Mr. Reiff, 53, took long flights almost 50 percent of the time and flew first or business class. He has since cut his flying time almost in half and no longer sleeps on planes. “Now I literally walk up and down the aisles.” At work, “I walk the halls every two hours, even at meetings,” Mr. Reiff said.

Rochelle Broome, corporate medical director for primary care at CHD Meridian Healthcare, recommends employees do frequent seat exercises to ensure increased blood circulation. “You don’t have to take a pill. There’s no shot. It’s easy,” said Dr. Broome, who experienced D.V.T.’s herself.

D.V.T. typically includes unexplained pain, tenderness, redness and swelling, often in the leg. Once a clot has traveled to the lung, common symptoms include chest pain and breathing difficulties. Some cases are asymptomatic or mirror other illnesses. For example, leg pain can be mistaken for a strained muscle and chest pain is often misdiagnosed as a heart attack or the flu.

Aspirin, which is effective in preventing heart attacks and strokes, does not lessen the danger of D.V.T. The researchers warned against wearing commercial compression stockings, which are effective only if custom fit; otherwise, they can have a negative effect by blocking blood flow. Also discouraged is the excessive intake of alcohol and use of sleeping pills because they promote immobility.

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

Now the news media is ganging up on the State Department saying it overcharged citizens more than $100,000,000. It’s a long story, as they say, but the essence is that the $30 applicants pay to the acceptance agent at a post office or court house at the time they apply is twice as much as the actual cost of the process of accepting an application according to a government study.

Talking about the passport acceptance process Senator Byron Dorgan said, “This is not supposed to be a profit-making venture. They charge 30 bucks just for passing something across the counter.”

Well, we know what is involved in the process of accepting passport applications by the acceptance agent, and it can be very complex depending on the quality of the identifying documents presented by applicants when they apply.

Our passport expediting company belongs to an association, the National Association of Passport and Visa Services, and it made a statement in response to a question about this issue from a reporter. It’s statement sums up our feeling on the matter and is quoted in part in the following:
“Our firms work closely with all but two of the passport agencies that are open to the public. In the past year, our firms have submitted hundreds of thousands of applications in behalf of citizens, so we know Passport Services very well. The people that work there are dedicated, hard working public servants, and we have never seen any evidence of waste on their part.

“Acceptance agents provide a critical role by correctly identifying passport applicants. Sometimes that is relatively easy and other times it can be complex depending on the quality of identifying documents presented by the applicant when they appear before an acceptance agent to apply for a passport.

“We have never seen nor heard anything to suggest anyone in the passport issuance process is in any way intentionally overcharging applicants. We do not have access to any authoritative studies of internal operations of Passaport Services or acceptance agent opertions, so we cannot comment on the studies being quoted.

“However, it is ironic that this year in the face of skyrocketing demand, passport expediting firms turned away tens of thousands of Americans wanting to use their services because Pasport Services reduced the number of applications individual firms can submit. Our firms’ passport expediting services start at $65 and go up depending on how quickly the passport is needed. Our firms serve almost all of the major corporations in the U.S and all of the major travel companies and online booking agencies; and through their trade associations, they have collectively urged Passport Services to allow our individual companies to submit more applications.

“With the passport card coming on line soon, it is critical that Passport Services utilize the services of private passport service firms to help citizens who needs a passport or a passport card quickly.”

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

Well, here is a new study that makes us a little suspicious of its conclusions. Topaz International reports that its study of business travel booked online on Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, and the airlines’ websites average $75 more per trip than those booked by a corporate travel agency.

Topaz, an independent research firm serving the corporate travel industry, has done this study since 2001, and concluded every year that corporate travel agency fares were equal to or lower than those offered through Orbitz, etc. in over 91% of itineraries.

Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

Let’s take a look at the Registered Traveler Program of the Transportation Security Administration.
This is a program whereby you can register in person, get approved, get an id card and at certain participating airports go to a special line and skip waiting in the normal line to go through security. You still have to pass through the security check, but you do not have to wait in line.
Some have criticized the program as nothing more than a way for those willing pay more not to wait in line. Although that is correct, we think this program is of real value to regular travelers. The cost to register is $100.

The program identifies passengers through security checks who pose very little security risk and allows them to go to the front of the line at security check points in participating airports.
Passengers who clear the background check are issued a smartcard credential for use at the security checkpoints of participating airports.

Registered Travelers have access to a reserved security lane and have a shorter wait at the security checkpoint. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) decreed that screening of Registered Travelers must be at least as thorough as the screening of other passengers, in order to prevent a terrorist with a clean background from compromising the system. Registered Travelers are not exempt from random secondary screening. Any U.S. citizen, legal resident of the U.S., or minors over the age of 12 with parental or guardian sponsorship can apply to participate.

These Registered Traveler programs are currently in operation at the following airports:
Albany International Airport (ALB)
Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), Terminal 3
Denver International Airport (DEN)
Indianapolis International Airport (IND)
LaGuardia International Airport (LGA)
Little Rock National Airport (LIT)
John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK), Terminals 1, 4, and 7
Newark Liberty International Airport, Terminal B (EWR)
Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), Terminal A and C
Orlando International Airport (MCO)
Reno/Tahoe International Airport (RNO)
San Francisco International Airport (SFO), Terminals 1 and 3
Westchester County Airport (HPN)
Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)

The two Washington airports have stated their intent to implement RT programs in the near future:
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)
Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)

Other airports that have expressed interest or have requested TSA approval to participate include:
Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI)
Birmingham International Airport (BHM)
Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW)
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
Huntsville International Airport (HSV)
Jacksonville International Airport (JAX)
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Miami International Airport (MIA)
O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT)
Springfield/Branson National Airport (SGF)
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC)

There are three vendors working with the TSA in offering the service:
1. The FLO Corporation.
2. Clear is operated by Verified Identity Pass. Clear passengers pay $99.95 per year for use of the service.
3. RtGo is operated by Unisys Corporation. Membership is $100 per year, with option to prepay for up to 5 years. Enrollment is currently conducted at Reno/Tahoe International Airport in Reno, Nevada.

Passengers who want to sign up to participate in the program must provide biographical information including name, address, phone number, citizenship status, and previous addresses and other information. This data is collected on a secure web site.

Next, the applicant will proceed to the biometric enrollment that requires applicants to present personally identification documents and fingerprints. Applicants can also have an iris scan performed if they want to use an iris scan instead of a fingerprint scan at the airport security checkpoint.
Once the biometric enrollment is complete, the service provider submits the data to the TSA which performs a Security Threat Assessment (STA) of the applicant. If the assessment indicates the applicant is not a risk to aviation security, TSA returns an approved STA to the service provider, who then provides the passenger with a Registered Traveler card.

The card is a smartcard that contains biometric information to prevent the card from being used by unauthorized persons. At the airport, the card is inserted in a verification kiosk which verifies the passenger’s biometrics (fingerprint or iris scan), verifies membership, and clears the member to proceed to security screening.

Here is what Clear, the most aggressive of the three vendors, says about its service:

“Whether you’re a business traveler, frequent flier or leisure traveler, as a Clear member you won’t wait in airport security lines.

“Apply

“Clear’s simple, two step enrollment process begins online. Applicants create an account and fill-in basic biographic information. Then, applicants must go to a Clear enrollment location, where our attendants will verify two forms of government-issued identification, and capture a photograph, your fingerprint images and your iris images. This information is used to allow you access to the designated Clear lane at the checkpoint.

“Welcome to the Clear Lane

“The Clear lane is a designated lane at the security checkpoint. Clear Members must verify a fingerprint or iris image (collected during enrollment) in order to enter the lane.At the Clear lane, a Clear attendant will greet you and check your boarding pass, Clear card and government-issued photo ID. You will be asked to insert your Clear card into the kiosk, which also verify the fingerprint or iris image that you selected during enrollment. When everything is verified (which takes just a few seconds), you will receive a receipt indicating that you are a Clear member.

“Clear members still proceed through metal detectors and x-ray machines operated and regulated by the Department of Homeland Security but other parts of the process are expedited. When you approach the lane, our attendants will help you with the bins and to get ready to go through the checkpoint. This alone helps our lane speed by as much as 30%!

“Ongoing Security Clear memberships are continuously reviewed by the Department of Homeland Security. If an individual’s security status changes, his or her membership in Clear may be deactivated by the government and you will receive a notification email of your status change as well as a refund of the unused portion of your Clear membership fee. The TSA vetting fee is not refundable. At the airport, you will still be able to use the standard security line but not the registered traveler fast lane.”

The media has followed this development and here is a sampling of their coverage on this new service:

The San Francisco ChronicleThursday, September 20, 2007

“Program allows some to bypass long SFO security lines”

by Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer

A long line snaked through the security checkpoint in Terminal 3 at San Francisco International Airport Wednesday afternoon, but Jim Sims didn’t have to wait.

Instead, Sims, who works in the computer industry, strolled to a special line marked by a blue light reading “Clear.” He showed his boarding pass, Florida driver’s license and a plastic card to an attendant. He inserted the card in an ATM-like machine and plunked his thumb down on a fingerprint reader.

The screen flashed “You are clear,” and Sims headed to the front of the security checkpoint line. Elapsed time: about 20 seconds. By contrast, those waiting in line took about 7 minutes to reach the checkpoint. Sims is enrolled in Clear, the program that began operating at SFO this week.

The New York Post - NEWS AND NOTES

August 28, 2007

“LaGuardia has opened up its first Clear enrollment station in its central terminal, next to the B Gates checkpoint.”

Members of Clear - of which there are some 59,000 - are able to blaze through a separate airport security line using an EZ Pass-like ID card embedded with their prescreened (and TSA approved) fingerprints and/or iris images.

Journal News
August 17, 2007

“New program to let some fliers breeze through Westchester airport security lines” by Diane Costello

A new program at Westchester County Airport will soon allow certain travelers to breeze past the lines. It’s…run by a private company called Clear and operates at no cost to the county. “It fits perfectly into our needs at this airport,” Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano said

TimesUnion.com

August 1, 2007

“Registered Traveler Lane Opens Tomorrow at Airport.”

By Eric Anderson

A kiosk has been operating for several days, according to Steven Brill, CEO of Clear Registered Traveler, a unit of Verified Identity Pass Inc., which is administering the program at Albany International Airport…On weekday mornings, when lines can stretch across the pedestrian bridge to the airport parking garage, the registered traveler lane could save program participants considerable time, airport and company officials say.

The Cincinnati Enquirer

January 26, 2007

“Hurried flyers buying speed pass”

By Alexander Coolidge

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport Thursday became the fifth U.S. airport to offer a speedy security screening process for subscribing customers. Airport officials hope the program will benefit even non-subscribers by helping whittle away CVG’s peak average wait time of 14 minutes in the morning and evening rushes.

The Transportation Security Administration and private industry developed the Registered Traveler (RT) program to provide expedited security screening for passengers who volunteer to undergo a TSA-conducted security threat assessment (STA) in order to confirm that they do not pose or are not suspected of posing a threat to transportation or national security.
The RT program is market-driven and offered by the private sector with TSA largely playing a facilitating role. TSA is responsible for setting program standards, conducting the STA, physical screening at TSA checkpoints, and certain forms of oversight. The private sector is responsible for enrollment, verification, and related services.

To enroll, applicants voluntarily provide RT Sponsoring Entities (participating airports/air carriers) and Service Providers (a TSA-approved vendor chosen by a Sponsoring Entity to implement RT as its agent) with biographic and biometric data needed for TSA to conduct the STA and determine eligibility. The STA includes checking each applicant’s identity against terrorist-related, law enforcement, and immigration databases that TSA maintains or uses. RT applicants who receive an approved STA result may become program participants.

Here are excerpts from Wired Magazine’s blog entry critical of the program:

Westchester County Airport (HPN).

The Registered Traveler program, which was just cleared for deployment the nation’s airports, has nothing to do with security and is simply a way to pay $100 to cut to the front of the line.

While $28 out of the approximately $100 fee goes to a security check performed by the Department of Homeland Security, there’s actually no rational reason to do the check other than to make the program look like it’s security-related.

The program is set to work like this — a traveler submits 10 fingerprints, a couple of optional iris scans, a digital photo, and personal information including their Social Security Number to the government through one of the private groups running a Registered Traveler program. After the government runs a $28 background check and clears the person, the private company (so far only Verified Identity Pass is certified) issues them a smart card.

Then after a traveler gets her boarding pass the normal way and heads toward the security checkpoint, she goes to a special line that has a kiosk. There she has her fingerprints scanned and checked against the card and if they match, she goes immediately to the front of the screening line. Then she goes through screening as normal — with their liquids in a bag, laptop out of its case, shoes off, etc. So, what’s the point of a background check if all you get is a better place in the same line you would have been without the card? …

Yes, in short, Registered Traveler is a program that lets people pay an annual fee of $100 to cut to the front of the line. As for the background check? It’s purely theater to make the public think the program is something other than a way for the well-off to avoid the hassles of post 9/11 airline travel. The TSA promises that the program won’t slow down regular travelers, but that’s plainly absurd. If it speeds up those willing to pay $100, it’s going to slow down those unwilling or unable to do so, since there are currently no plans to add special screening lanes for

Registered Travelers.

Yup, we’re all in this together, except that some of us are more all in this together than others.

UPDATE:

Cindy Rosenthal, the vice president of communication for Verified Identity Pass, contacted me to correct and contest some of my points (I had left a message for her yesterday).
VIP does make lines faster for everyone for several reasons (based on a trial in Orlando and new equipment):

· The designated lanes include longer tables for separating a traveler’s things into plastic containers and there is a conceierge to help with that process

· The Registered Traveler kiosks, specially made by GE (now an investor in VIP), also scan shoes so that travellers don’t have to take their shoes off when they go through the metal detector (unless they have a significant amount of metal, such as with steel-toed boots or spike heels)

· The company is working on finding and paying for new scanning equipment that may let travellers keep their coats on when going through the magnetometer and/or not have to remove laptops from their bags

Rosenthal contends that the background check is useful because the government knows more about who is travelling through the airport, even though the security check has nothing to do with what happens at the screening line.

The other bigger premise to Registered Traveler is obviously knowing more in a security sense about who is going through the airport. And registering and having a background check is certainly providing that kind of security, a little more security, than it is to just have a driver’s license or a student ID to get on a plane. You know more about who is going through and the government has given the approval to those people to be on that side of the line in that lane. I’m not going to debate it. It is just a fact.

Actually, nothing is actually done with the background check and without the faster lanes, the exact same set of people would be going through identical checks without the progam. The background check is a thus net-zero in security terms. One could just as well substitute a requirement that registered travelers submit signed statements that they are not terrorists or make them all wear Remember 9-11 t-shirts and the effect would be the same.

Rosenthal agrees that Registered Traveler will have no effect on the watchlist mismatching, but says her organization wants that to change. Unfortunately, that’s highly unlikely given the massive technical requirements of not issuing a boarding pass and not performing a watchlist check until the moment that a registered traveler uses a kiosk.

While Rosenthal makes some good points about how their lines are faster, there’s no reason those same techniques couldn’t be used for all travelers and the program still amounts to a way to pay your way to the front of the line. That may be fine (some airports already have designated lanes for first- and business-class travelers) with some, but it strikes me that the burdens of the terrorism age should be shared by all. And there’s no still no security benefit to Registered Traveler.

Correction note: After talking with Cindy Rosenthal, I learned that the fingerprints, photos, iris scans and personal information are all submitted prior to the background check. The post was changed to reflect that flow. The previous version indicated that the fingerprints, iris scan and photos were submitted after the background check was completed…
[end of Wired blog]

We’ll keep you posted on development with the Registered Traveler Program. We are registering and will let you know how it goes.

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.

The French unions are after President Sarkozy and his new “American” policies of cutting waste. The first step is a rail strike set for November 13th and is “renewable” every 24 hours.

Be sure and keep up with the news in France if you are traveling there. French unions have a history of wanting to inconvenience as many people as possible to get their way.

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Planning a trip? Is your passport up to date? Click here to order a visa and check the requirements for entry.