• Eliminate long lines at Passport Agencies.

1. At the Passport Agencies in Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, and Stamford, appointment systems will allow customers to schedule a convenient time to apply for a passport; at other Passport Agencies, sophisticated numbering systems will inform customers when their number will be served, allowing them to choose whether to wait or return at the appropriate time.

2. New citizens will be able to apply for a passport in conjunction with the naturalization process.

• Increase consular information and services available via the Internet, including additional applications that can be downloaded from CA's web site.

• Make the Visa Waiver Pilot Program permanent so that citizens of participating countries may continue to travel to the United States for tourism or business for 90 days or less without obtaining a U.S. visa. Annually, over 14 million tourists and business visitors to the United States now benefit from this program, approximately one-third of the total number of visitors.

Fostering Partnerships

• Expand systems-integration and data-sharing partnerships with other agencies in areas of mutual concern and activity, particularly:

1. improve coordination and customer service by providing electronic information on immigrant and non-immigrant visa issuances to INS inspectors at ports of entry;

2. work with INS to develop a Border Crossing Card with biometric identifiers and to issue an estimated 2-8 million new cards; and

3. work with other agencies (FBI, DEA, etc.) to ensure that any adverse information on an alien is available to consular officers at the time of an alien's application for a visa.

Internal Reinvention

• Improve service to Americans abroad by integrating the databases used by the Bureau of Consular Affairs and Foreign Service Posts.

• Enhance the anti-fraud features of U.S. passports by the digitization of photographs, and visas by the addition of a biometric identifier, such as an electronic fingerprint.

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