The United States Department of Homeland Security is working to smoothing the customs and immigrations procession for visitors to the US by expanding immigration pre-clearance formalities to new airports across the world.

The US is currently in talks with a number of countries, with the goal of implementing American immigration pre-clearance in these countries’ airports.

Leading the pack of airports under consideration for this new procedure is Tokyo Narita airport. Other airports in discussion with the US are London Heathrow and Manchester in the UK; Belgium’s Brussels airport; Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic; Amsterdam Schipol; Oslo, Norway; Madrid’s Barajas airport in Spain; Stockholm Arlanda in Sweden; and Turkey’s Istanbul Ataturk.

The airports were identified by passenger volume and interest. In total, the ten airports that are currently negotiation had close to 20 million passengers travelling to the US in 2014.

“A significant homeland security priority of mine id building more pre-clearance capacity at airports overseas,” said US secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson. “We have this now in 15 airports. I am pleased that we are seeking negotiations with ten new airports in nine countries. I want to take every opportunity we have to push our homeland security out beyond our borders so that we are not defending the homeland from the one-yard line.”

“Pre-clearance is a win-win for the travelling public,” continued Johnson. “It provides aviation and homeland security, and it reduces wait times upon arrival at the busiest US airports. www.dhs.gov