TIA Outraged At Prioritization For Visa Interviews - Solve The Problem, Don't Make It Worse!
WASHINGTON, DC -- A recently uncovered June 3 memorandum from the State Department to U.S. Embassies and Consulates reveals that priority is being assigned for students, academics and exchange visitors as part of the Department's new policy of interviewing more than 90 percent of non-immigrant visa applicants. The new policy must be in effect worldwide by August 1 and it is already creating even longer waits than usual as applicants rush to...
"This new prioritization says that we don't care for the billions of dollars that business people, tourists and family members bring to the U.S.," said William S. Norman, president and CEO of the Travel Industry Association of America. "Rather than solve the problem by adding staff resources to reduce the wait for interviews, the Department has compounded it by telling critically important segments of visitors that they are second class."
In fact, the State Department memo notes that, "a small number of posts already have waiting times for interviews of four weeks or more; others could develop such waiting periods." An earlier memo from U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell stressed to Consular offices that the additional interviews were to be implemented before August 1 with existing resources and without overtime to handle the additional workload.
Prospective visitors to the U.S. are alarmed about the possibility of long, drawn-out waits to obtain a visa to visit the U.S. and are rushing to get approval before the August 1 deadline. A recent article from
While TIA supports the move to improve our nation's security, there must be a balance between homeland security and economic security. By rushing to implement these new rules before the proper planning, technology and resources have been developed, these measures will do little to enhance security at our nation's borders. The travel industry is concerned that resultant confusion and aggravation will lead would-be international visitors to choose other countries over the U.S. as their travel destination. Forty-two million international visitors spent $88 billion in the U.S. in 2002, support one million U.S. jobs and generate $12 billion in tax revenue.
TIA is the national, non-profit organization representing all components of the $525 billion travel industry. TIA's mission is to represent the whole of the U.S. travel industry to promote and facilitate increased travel to and within the United States.