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Visitors to the United States - not including Canadians, at least initially - will need to fill out online forms with personal biographical details at least three days before they arrive, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced yesterday.

The new rules - the latest in a long series since 19 al-Qaeda operatives slipped undetected into the United States and staged the horrific multiple suicide hijackings of Sept. 11, 2001 - are designed to track and intercept terrorists and others on American watch lists.

They will go into effect Jan. 12, 2009.

Canadians flying to the United States and Americans returning home by air after visiting Canada will be exempt from the online registration requirements. The new rules also won't apply to the nearly 200 million vehicle crossings annually at U.S.-Canadian land borders involving citizens of both countries.

However, all citizens of 27 other countries who currently don't need visas to visit the United States - including Britain, most of Western Europe, Japan and Australia - will now need to register their details online in advance, in place of filling out the paper entry forms now handed out on international flights.
Citizens of the 27 visa-waiver program countries that are residents in Canada will continue to be processed at American border crossing points without prior online registration.
The online forms will be available on Aug. 1. Frequent travellers to the United States will only need to fill one out every two years.

Canada currently requires visitors arriving by air to fill out paper forms. The European Union has an online form system under review.