Japanese tourists to benefit from a ‘pre-clearance’ pact

If a “pre-clearance” deal between the United States and Japan pushes through, tourists from Japan can clear U.S immigration from the comfort of their own country. It can potentially attract more tourists from Japan at a time when arrivals from that market have been waning.

U.S Department of Homeland Security officials met with Lt. Gov. Ralph DLG Torres yesterday morning to specifically discuss the planned “pre-clearance” agreement between the Japanese and U.S. governments.

DHS officials, along with agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, met with Torres and officials of the Commonwealth Ports Authority to look at new and innovative ways of making clearance through immigration and customs more efficient.

The “pre-clearance” deal focuses solely on passenger processing where the same immigration, customs, and agriculture inspections of international air passengers performed on arrival in the U.S can instead be completed before departure at foreign airports.

Thomas S. Winkowski, former acting commissioner for U.S. CBP who now serves as an adviser, said one of the things he talked about with Torres and local authorities handling the airport is a partnership with Japan where they would do pre-clearance operations to pre-cleared passengers that are destined for Saipan.

“That would reduce the wait time and enable us to handle the process in Japan so when the passengers come off the aircraft they can just proceed to Saipan and do their business,” he said.

Winkowski said it wouldn’t necessarily require more manpower but depends on what model CBP would be looking at.

“There are unique authority issues here and we’re looking at something that is probably going to take up to three to five years to complete so it is something very long term. We’re negotiating with Japan, other host governments, and legal authorities,” he said.

Winkowski said they are going to work on a memorandum of agreement and come up with a broader agreement with some working groups to tackle the issue.

He noted that he will be meeting with the airlines involved at the Saipan’s airport because CBP intends to bring all the stakeholders into the discussion.

Torres, in a separate interview, said this will be a great opportunity for Japanese tourists to come to Saipan more easily and thus boost the Japan market, which traditionally was the islands’ bread and butter before waning the past couple of years.

Winkowski said they will later work on the other tourist markets coming to Saipan, but he didn’t present any specific timeframe.