[An-lang] Re: COOL6 - potential problem

[Claire Bowern]

Couple of points from Harvard's Interational Office.

Countries requiring special security clearance: visas may be delayed 6-8
weeks or "an unspecified length of time"
The countries are: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cuba,
Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, **Indonesia**, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait,
Lebanon,
Libya, **Malaysia**, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and
the territories of Gaza and West Bank. This list may continue to be
expanded.

Furthermore:
"Media sources have reported that Special Registration may be required of
any non-immigrant who has made "unexplained visits" to Afghanistan, Egypt,
Somalia, Indonesia, or Malaysia, in addition to the countries listed
above. Special Registration is currently in effect for citizens and
nationals from 25 countries who are already present in the United States."
(countries listed above are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, and Syria)

Further details from
http://www.hio.harvard.edu/students_scholars/travel/special_registration.php

Further information which may affect people:

>>From this coming October if you do not have a machine-readable passport
you cannot enter the USA under a visa waiver program - you have to apply
for a visa.

At some point passports with biometric data will also be required, but
apparently the leglisation is still being finalised so noone knows what's
going on so there's a heap of conflicting information around (e.g. some
say it starts on Jauary 30th, some say it doesn't start until October
2004, some say it doesn't apply to old passports, etc).

Claire


------------
Claire Bowern
Department of Linguistics
Harvard University
305 Boylston Hall
Cambridge, MA, 02138

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