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U.S. outlines plan to streamline visa process
WASHINGTON (AFX) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff outlined plans Tuesday to streamline the visa process for foreign visitors to the United States, a change eagerly sought by the travel and tourism industry as well as other business groups. "For our economy to continue to grow and prosper, the foreign employees and customers of our business community must be able to enter our country quickly and efficiently," Rice said. The visa application process was tightened in the wake of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In most cases, applicants must now be interviewed in person and are subject to increased security checks. But as a result, wait times for international visitors have varied sharply from location to location, with some facing waits of up to 100 days just for an interview, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Rice said that the State Department is making application forms and related information available online and also has established a business center to help U.S. companies get needed visas. In addition, the United States is in the process of using information technology to make more useful travel documents and to conduct "smarter screening in every place that we encounter travelers, whether at a consulate abroad or at a port of entry into the United States," she said. The new travel documents also will help travelers comply with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which will require all travelers to and from the Americas, the Caribbean and Bermuda, including U.S. citizens, to have a passport or other accepted document that establishes the bearer's identity and nationality to enter or reenter the United States. The State and Homeland Security departments "anticipate issuing a new, inexpensive, secure travel card for land-border crossings that will meet the documentation requirements of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, but in a way that does not necessarily require people to have passports of the traditional kind," Chertoff said. The State Department and Homeland Security Department also will begin a model airport program, which includes customized public video messages to help foreign travelers move through the border entry process, as well as greeters who will assist foreign travelers once they have been admitted to our country. Washington Dulles and Houston airports will conduct the pilot project this year, according to Rice.
This story was supplied by MarketWatch. For further information see www.marketwatch.com. For more information and to contact AFX: www.afxnews.com and www.afxpress.com
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