U.S. rule in effect for visa interviews
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post
WASHINGTON — The State Department has ordered foreign service officers worldwide to begin face-to-face interviews with millions of visa applicants who previously haven't merited such scrutiny, a step that will result in months-long backlogs, according to officials and documents.
The rules, formally issued in a cable sent to 221 embassies and consulates Wednesday, have generated strong objections from business, education and tourism groups, whose leaders argue that delays in obtaining visas will discourage foreign nationals from visiting the United States at a time when the economy is still struggling.
The heightened scrutiny will be applied to about 90 percent of visa applicants from countries in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, with general exceptions for diplomats and people 16 and younger or 60 and older. The rules won't affect citizens of Canada and 27 other countries, most of them in Europe, who aren't required to obtain U.S. business or tourist visas, and who make up about half of the 35 million people who visit the United States each year.
U.S. consulates have until Aug. 1 to implement the new regulations.
"This is probably going to add a lot more time to the process and could bog the system down very seriously," said Randy Johnson, vice president for labor, immigration and employee benefits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "These are businessmen coming in to make deals with American businessmen, as well as workers coming in to help our economy. ... If it's going to take six months or more to get a visa, why would anyone bother?"
More than 90 percent of tourists to Hawai'i are from the U.S. Mainland, Japan or Canada and none require tourist visas. Visitors from countries that require tourist visas make up about 6.2 percent of all tourists to Hawai'i, or about 391,000 a year, according to 2001 state figures, the most recent available.
Although the numbers are relatively small, tourism officials are nonetheless worried.
"Anything that increases the difficulty to travel increases the risk of travel declines to Hawai'i. So we're always concerned with that," said Frank Haas, Hawai'i Tourism Authority marketing director. "It's primarily a federal issue. What we can do is advocate with the federal government and other governmental agencies for policies that are balanced between safety and freedom to travel."
State officials have advocated streamlining clearance procedures to ease travel. Tony Vericella, Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau president, said Hawai'i officials also lobbied for special procedures for Hawai'i and Alaska to speed processing. They also notify visa issuing offices when large groups come to Hawai'i to ease entry into the country.
The federal policy change is part of an array of new restrictions designed to improve security and monitoring of visitors since the Sept. 11 attacks. The government has also established a new Internet-based registration system for foreign students and now requires visitors from many Muslim countries to register and be fingerprinted at ports of entry.
For months, the departments of Justice and Homeland Security have advocated increasing the number of visa interviews. The Homeland Security Department now has jurisdiction over visa policy.
But many in U.S. diplomatic circles strongly opposed the new rules, in part because applicants already must wait three months or more for visas in many locations. The cable announcing the policy change warned that the additional interviews must be handled "using existing resources" and without offering overtime hours to employees.
Foreign posts "should develop appointment systems and public-relations strategies to mitigate as much as possible the effect of these changes," the cable read.
Technically, U.S. law already requires nonimmigrant visa applicants to submit to in-person interviews, which generally last two to three minutes. But State Department rules have traditionally given consular officials broad leeway in granting exceptions.
State Department officials said they don't keep track of the proportion of visa applicants required to submit to interviews, but outside immigration experts estimate that as little as 20 percent are required to do so in some countries. Nearly 5.8 million business and tourist visas were issued in fiscal 2002, officials said. Besides visitors from visa waiver countries, the rest of the visitors to the United States fall into a variety of other categories.
Stuart Patt, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs in the State Department, said applicants who submit to face-to-face interviews are commonly asked about their destinations and plans in the United States.
By requiring the interviews, Patt said, U.S. officials hope to increase their chances of catching terrorists or prevent them from obtaining visas.
Advocates of stricter U.S. immigration policies have repeatedly criticized the State Department since Sept. 11 for failing to properly scrutinize visa applicants.
A General Accounting Office study found that at least 13 of the 15 hijackers from Saudi Arabia were never interviewed by U.S. consular officers before they were granted visas, and none had filled in his application properly. In addition, three of the hijackers obtained their documents through travel agents under a special "visa express" program that has since been abandoned.
But many foreign service officers complain that they're already overburdened by their workload. Some fear that increasing the volume of interviews will increase the chances of mistakes.
Patt said that "pragmatic factors were a consideration," but those problems have been worked out.
The State Department cable notes that the department will "try to provide the resources necessary to cope with any additional workload, but expects and accepts that many posts will face processing backlogs for the indefinite future."
Business and tourism leaders said that while they applaud the goal of improved security, the State Department could cause serious economic damage if it doesn't provide sufficient staff to handle demand. Higher education groups have also expressed alarm, fearing the rules could reduce travel by instructors and students from overseas.
Advertiser staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi contributed to this report.
