Simon makes a good point that the form captures people who lie by omitting information about their lives. But that undercuts the need for people to fill the form out so far in advance.

If we must answer these kinds of questions in advance, can’t we just answer them at the airport, at check-in?

My concern is not filling in the form (online or otherwise) but what the USA does with the data – something I suspect will be quietly glossed over during discussions.

BTW the most hilarious thing about the I-94W is if you tick ‘yes’ to any of those criminal questions, it tells you to contact a US embassy before you fly – even though you don’t get the form until you’re already on the plane and in the air!

SRS almost gets the point – obviously, if you’ve conducted an act of genocide the thought of committing a felony by lying about it on a form isn’t going to phaze you, but that’s not quite what the forms are for.

The US government doesn’t expect people to incriminate on the form; it bets they’ll incriminate themselves by not doing so. If, then, they found a Nazi who had come in but lied on the visa waiver, it gives them the right to kick them out the country immediately as the visa is invalidated. It’s a get-out-while-keeping-US-jails-free card.

These are all criteria for denying a visa and/or denying entry to the United States

So, the USA (or other countries) can legitimately exclude drug dealers, ex nazis (if any are still alive and mobile instead of in old age homes), politicians accused of genocide etc. Oh, its a felony to give false answers on that form.

It might come as a complete surprise to the inhabitants of those islands that they are, again, part of the USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_and_Enderbury_Islands