Holidays in the US could become more difficult in the future as the US government’s plans to fingerprint all arriving and departing visitors are causing controversy.

The latest announcement said it would be up to airlines and cruise ship companies to take the fingerprints from their passengers arriving or departing from holidays in America and deliver them to the government in 24 hours.

Outsourcing security measures to be the responsibility of private companies has not been well received by airlines and other companies who have spoken against such plans.

The plans are not yet definite, but the US Congress has set a deadline for when all visitors entering and leaving the US have to be fingerprinted – June 9th 2009. There has even been talk of scrapping the Visa Waiver Programme if this deadline is not met.