No immediate plans for immigration check posts in India, says US

Air India keen for US immigration pre-clearance facilities at Mumbai and Delhi airports

US Customs and Border Protection department has indicated it has no immediate plans to set up immigration pre-clearance facilities at airports in India.

Pre-clearance facilities allow a traveller to complete US immigration and custom checks at a foreign airport. Thus, a traveller does not have to queue up for these checks on arrival at a US airport.

The department has said it is currently working on a proposal to set up facilities at ten foreign airports including ones at London, Amsterdam and Tokyo amongst others. This does not include airports in India. These facilities would be set up following negotiations between the US and respective governments.

“The only plans right now are to negotiate with the nine foreign countries where the 10 identified airports are located,” a US Customs and Border Protection department (CBP) spokesperson said in an email response.

Air India, which operates three daily non stop flights between India and the US, is keen to have the pre-clearance facility at Mumbai and Delhi airport. The national carrier has requested the external affairs ministry to discuss the issue with the US government.

Last year, US immigration pre-clearance facility was set up in Abu Dhabi, making it possible for passengers of Jet Airways and Etihad to complete their checks in the capital city of UAE before boarding the US-bound flight. Air India’s demand for US pre-clearance facilities at Mumbai and Delhi was made in this backdrop.

Last month, secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson announced the United States intends to enter into negotiations to expand air pre-clearance operations to ten new foreign airports, located in Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. If negotiations are successful, pre-clearance could be completed before departure from these foreign airports rather than upon arrival in the US.

The US government identified the ten airports after nearly a year-long process that began with soliciting expressions of interest from foreign airports. The  CBP identified these airports in coordination with the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of State of the US and prioritised them based on the greatest potential to support security and travel facilitation.  More than two dozen foreign airports had expressed an interest in opening pre-clearance facilities.

The 10 airports identified for possible pre-clearance locations include airports at Brussels, Punta Cana (Dominican Republic). Tokyo-Narita, Amsterdam, Oslo,  Madrid, Stockholm, Istanbul, and London Heathrow  and Manchester airports. These countries represent some of the busiest last points of departure to the United States — in 2014, nearly 20 million passengers travelled from these ten airports to the US, it was announced last month.

At present CBP has more than 600 law enforcement officers and agriculture specialists stationed at 15 air pre-clearance locations in six countries:  Dublin and Shannon in Ireland; Aruba; Freeport and Nassau in the Bahamas; Bermuda; Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Winnipeg in Canada; and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Last year, CBP cleared over 16 million passengers through these pre-clearance locations.