Washington, Nov 30 (EFE).– The U.S. government on Monday announced changes in its visa policy, known as the Visa Waiver Program, or VWP, which benefits citizens from 38 countries, due to the recent Paris attacks and the “ongoing threat” represented by foreign terrorists.

In a communique, the White House set forth the changes that will be introduced into the VWP program, which permits citizens of more than three dozen – mainly European – countries to travel to the United States without needing to get a visa for visits focusing on business or tourism and lasting no more than 90 days.

That program allows some 20 million people to enter the United States without visas each year.

The White House said that the Homeland Security Department will take the necessary measures “immediately” to modify the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, known as ESTA, which allows visa-exempt foreigners to travel by boat or air to the United States.

With that modification, ESTA will include information about any past trip by the applicant to “countries constituting a terrorist safe haven.”

In addition, in consultation with the State Department and other federal agencies, DHS will initiate a process to identify the countries included in the VWP program that are “deficient” in their cooperation with the United States in the exchange of biometric information such as fingerprints and photographs.

In addition, DHS will offer assistance to VWP countries to “better facilitate terrorism information sharing” and will ask Congress for authorization to increase the size of fines that can be levied on carriers that do not adequately verify travelers’ passport data.

Last week, President Barack Obama welcomed his French counterpart, François Hollande, to the White House and urged the countries of the European Union to launch a passenger information database as soon as possible.

Another of the changes announced Monday by the U.S. government seeks to aid VWP countries “in screening refugees or asylum seekers” so that they can do biometric checks “in real time,” according to the White House. EFE