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At the news conference updating the IAP (left to right): Interpreter Joanna Zasun, Amb. Victor Ashe, and Pawel Dakowski of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration
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The Immigration Advisory Program (IAP) at Warsaw’s Okecie Airport - designed to reduce the number of travelers who are turned away at U.S. ports-of-entry because of invalid or expired visas - will continue indefinitely, according to Ambassador Victor Ashe. The Ambassador made the announcement at a news conference on December 6 at the airport.
The IAP, now three months old, was the product of talks between President Bush and President Kwasniewski at the White House January 27th. Under the program, passengers likely to be denied entry upon arrival - less than one per cent of all Polish citizens admitted to the U.S. annually - are given the opportunity not to board the flight.
“I am pleased to tell you that we consider the IAP to be an unqualified success and that we intend to continue its operations,” said Ambassador Ashe. “Its success is due to the hard work and expertise of the IAP team, and on the truly outstanding support it has received from the airport authority, Polish Border Guards and Customs, and LOT Polish Airlines. I want to thank and congratulate the many individuals from these organizations for their goodwill and effort.”
Between September 15 and November 30, the IAP team pre-screened 144 U.S. bound flights with a total of 31,322 passengers. 341 of those were interviewed. Of that number, 35 people were advised that they appeared not to be admissible to the U.S. and would most likely be returned to Poland. 25 people chose to not to board their flights based on this recommendation. The remaining ten people who were advised not to board disregarded that advice and opted to fly to the U.S. All of these individuals were found to be inadmissible at the U.S. port of entry and returned to Poland.
Those passengers who chose not to board the aircraft were saved the expense and inconvenience of not being permitted to enter the U.S.
The IAP has also been successful in establishing new avenues of communication and cooperation between the U.S. and Poland. Both sides have worked together to facilitate and coordinate the deportation of wanted persons; they have worked closely to detect falsified documents, including visas and entry/exit stamps; and they have benefited from exchanges of information through training sessions and through daily contact with each other.
The IAP is the first program of its kind in the world. Since September IAP inspectors have been marking travelers’ immigration forms with a unique stamp to document that the screening took place. The data is electronically forwarded to the appropriate port-of-entry ahead of arrival. Non-stop flights to the U.S. - to New York JFK, Newark International and Chicago O’Hare - benefit from the IAP.
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