Remember how former president APJ Abdul Kalam and film star Shah Rukh Khan were subjected to embarrassing pat-down searches while travelling to the US? Well, the harrowing experience of going through stringent security drills at US airports will soon become a thing of the past for a select group of Indian celebrities and important personalities.

The Indian government will come up with a list of nearly 2,000 important personalities who will be allowed hassle-free immigration at US airports. Sources said the first batch of people that will be given the facility includes former President Pratibha Patil, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani and film stars Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan. Their names came up when officials of two countries met in New Delhi last month to discuss the modalities of the system that will make India a part of US global entry programme that ensures smooth entry in the country, bypassing long immigration queues and waiting for hours during security checks.

The Global Entry, a US Customs and Border Protection programme, allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travellers upon arrival in the United States.

Not just Shah Rukh and Kalam, several Indian celebrities and VIPs have faced problems at US airports. Bollywood personalities Aamir Khan, John Abraham, politician and former Union minister Praful Patel and former diplomat Hardeep Puri went through rounds of frisking and quizzing when they landed in the US.

So far, citizens of seven countries get the benefits of America's Global Entry programme. The countries are the Netherlands, Panama, South Korea, Germany, Peru, Mexico and Canada.

In order to be part of the Global entry programme, one should not have any criminal record or be connected with any kind of economic offence.

Officials working on the subject said the US authorities are in favour of including as many individuals as possible since it makes the job of security agencies easier.

"We are preparing a list of frequent travellers who can be part of this. Initially we will include about 2000 individuals but once we have a robust system in place to carry out background checks, the numbers will increase," said a government official.

Select few

Sources said the system cannot be restricted to celebrities or high-profile personalities alone. Once it starts functioning any individual can apply for it. "It's not just Indian agencies that will be involved in carrying out background checks, the US authorities will also do that. Once all scrutiny is done, one can be included in the list," the official added.

So how will this work? There will be a global entry kiosk where passengers can present their machine-readable passport or US permanent resident card, place their fingerprints on the scanner for fingerprint verification and complete a customs declaration. The kiosk will issue the traveller a transaction receipt and direct him to baggage claim and the exit.

The decision to include India in the Global entry programme was taken last September when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited America. Now, officials of both countries have come together to make this a reality soon.