Washington ? Already swamped with more than 800,000 change-of-address forms from noncitizens, the Immigration and Naturalization Service Friday said it would begin fingerprinting and photographing visitors from five Middle Eastern countries next week.

The new registration requirements will affect as many as 200,000 visitors who are either suspected of terrorism or hold passports from five countries named for the first time in a federal notice Friday: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria. Those five, along with North Korea and Cuba, are the only countries officially listed as sponsors of terrorism by the State Department.

The INS is prepared to take on the extra load of processing and paperwork, said Justice Department spokesman Jorge Martinez, with registration beginning at undisclosed selected ports of entry on Sept. 11 and all ports of entry on Oct. 1.

But some critics wonder if INS workers will be ready, given the agency’s history.

“They’re having a hard time keeping up with the most basic of functions,” said Angela Kelly of the National Immigration Forum. “If they are not given the tools to do their basic job, how can they be expected to fulfill the assortment of mandates that the Department of Justice is placing on them?”

The most recent example arose when Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft announced this summer that the INS would enforce a 1952 law that makes failing to notify the agency of a change of address within 10 days a misdemeanor and ultimately grounds for deportation.

INS officials say they had no system in place and no money for the new task.

Before Sept. 11, the INS was receiving just 2,800 change of address notifications a month. After the terrorist attacks, the number jumped to 19,800 a month. But since July, the INS has been receiving 30,000 a day.