The promise that Bermudians still don't need visas to travel through the US despite new security rules is proving hollow said travel agent Carl Paiva yesterday.

The C-Travel CEO says his colleague Joe Amaral was stopped trying to return from the Azores via the US on Wednesday but knew enough to argue his way on to the plane.

But he said another family on the same flight were not so lucky and were sent back and told to get a visa.

New "homeland security" rules in the United States mean that some non-Bermudians will no longer be able to transit through the US without a visa, until further notice, it was announced this week.

But Bermudians and other nationals who do not need a visa to visit the United States should not be affected according to official policy.

Mr. Paiva said it boiled down to interpretation and that some immigration officers weren't always aware of their own rules and needed to be warned.

"It all boils down to interpretation," said Mr. Paiva.

And he said a Bermudian girl flying from London to Bermuda via New York had also been made to get a visa she didn't need on Saturday.

He said: "My objective is to educate the travelling public. I am in the business and I always hear about clients who have been stopped. I don't want people stranded."

In most cases tickets could not be changed and the clients lost out because of the delay said Mr. Paiva.

However Assistant Chief Immigration Officer Rozy Azhar said her office had been inundated with calls from Bermudians worried about visas but no one had been stopped. "We would know about it if that happened."

US Homeland Security suspended two programmes which allow passengers to transit the country without a visa because of concerns that terrorists might use the programs to access the United States.