ESTA Becomes Effective For VWP Travelers
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Effective January 12, 2009, all foreign nationals traveling to the US under the Visa Waiver Program ("VWP") must comply with Electronic System for Travel Authorization ("ESTA") requirements. ESTA is a web-based system that determines the preliminary eligibility of individuals to enter the United States. Since its launch in August 2008, more than 1.2 million ESTA applications have been processed, resulting in an approval rating of greater than 99.6 percent. Most applications are processed in seconds, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ("DHS").
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Foreign nationals citizens of VWP countries, who are seeking entry to the U.S. with a visa instead of .jpg)
under the VWP, do not need to use ESTA. While an ESTA approval is required before a VWP traveler can board an international carrier bound for the United States, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol ("CBP") may still deny entry to a VWP traveler.
The citizens of countries currently eligible to travel to the United States under the VWP are: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brunei, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
IAMI (February 4, 2009) – Nationally known immigration attorney, Hector A. Chichoni, a member of Epstein Becker & Green’s (EBG) Miami office, has been appointed National Immigration Counsel by ALTA, the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association.
Members of AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association) are reporting
errors in EADs (Employment Authorization Documents) cards, including the following: 1) Incorrect country of birth, date of birth, gender or spelling of name. 2) Clearly incorrect validity dates. Please note that EADs approved at the NSC USCIS Nebraska Service Center) under the "express" adjudication system are approved as of the date of adjudication, whether it is an initial EAD or an extension. An example of a clearly incorrect validity date is an EAD approved on 07/09/2008 bearing validity dates from 01/01/2008 to 01/01/2009. 3) Approval for 
one year of validity, when the applicant clearly qualifies for two years (please review USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) updates and AILA postings to make sure the applicant qualifies). 4) Switched photos, i.e. husband's card has wife's photo and vice versa or a completely different person. If any of the above situations apply, please follow the instructions to submit an inquiry for individual case liaison assistance. You may ignore the instruction to first call the 1-800 customer service line at NCSC (National Customer Service .jpg)
Center) when submitting requests for EAD correction. To minimize delays, please describe the nature of the error as clearly as possible when submitting your request. Your liaison request will be forwarded to an NSC liaison committee member, who will review it and respond to you with instructions for obtaining the corrected EAD. IMPORTANT NOTE: individuals will be required to submit the incorrect EAD card in the original to the NSC in order to receive a corrected EAD card. Merely requesting a corrected card either by telephone or in writing will not be effective. Therefore, where necessary please ensure that the applicant provides the EAD to his or her employer for I-9 purposes prior to sending it in for correction. No new photos should be required, except in the circumstance of switched photos.