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Expanding the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) would bring increased economic opportunity to and improve national security in the United States while advancing U.S. public diplomacy around the world, said Roger J. Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association.

Dow’s comments emerged from his testimony submitted today to the Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement.

“Since its creation in 1986, the VWP has been an invaluable instrument of U.S. national security and public diplomacy and is also critical to our nation’s economic health,” said Dow.

“It is difficult to exaggerate the benefits to the United States of reciprocal 90-day, visa-free travel with the 36 countries that currently qualify for visa waiver status,” Dow said.

The VWP program has provided its promised stimulus to the U.S. economy, Dow argues. In 2010, VWP countries were the largest source of inbound overseas travels to the United States, sending more than 17 million visitors or 65 percent of all visitors from overseas. While here, these visitors spent nearly $61 billion, supporting 433,000 American jobs along with $12 billion in payroll and generating $9 billion in tax revenues.

“The opportunities that would result from expanding the program to key emerging economies are staggering,” said Dow. “As the Subcommittee reviews the program, we urge you to reflect on these benefits to our foreign policy, homeland security and economy that comprised the original rationale for creating the Visa Waiver Program.”

U.S. Travel supports two pieces of legislation regarding the VWP currently before Congress: H.R. 959, introduced earlier this congressional session by Rep. Mike Quigley, and H.R. 3341, sponsored by Reps. Mazie Hirono and David Dreier.

Dow’s testimony was submitted in conjunction with the Dec. 7 committee hearing: “Visa Waiver Program Oversight: Risks and Benefits of the Program.”

Source: http://www.travelagentcentral.com

The U.S. visa processing time may be shortened to within 30 days, said a U.S. tourism official on Monday.

“The U.S. Senate just introduced a legislation last week to bring the waiting time (for a visa) to under 30 days,” Roger Dow, president and CEO of U.S. Travel Association (USTA), told Xinhua at an annual China-U.S. tourism leadership summit on Big Island, Hawaii.

“Specifically they are looking at China and taking a look at the feasibility of not having a face-to-face interview,” Dow said.

Shao Qiwei, chairman of China’s National Tourism Administration, said China and the United States are working together to improve the efficiency of visa issuance.

Since the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding in 2007 that aimed to bring more customers to the U.S. tourism industry by facilitating group leisure travel from China to the United States and permit U.S. destinations to market themselves in China, the two countries have seen significant growth in this market, Shao said.

The three-day summit opening Monday is designed to build business through creating relationships and knowledge of both the Chinese and U.S. markets.

Members of USTA and the China National Tourism Association, including more than 70 regional tourism officials from the United States and China, attended the meeting.

Source: Xinhua

Brazil, long known for manufacturing airplanes, ethanol and a variety of other exportable products, has become a major player in the world economy, and its growth assures even greater importance in the future. Today, it’s officially the fifth largest economy in the world – surpassing France and Great Britain.

For South Florida, the consequences are significant. Some 550,000 Brazilians visited last year and spent an about $1 billion, a figure that will surely grow.

Why then did more than half a million people from one of the world’s soaring economies have to wait weeks to request travel visas to visit the United States? Because of an outdated policy that needs to be revisited.

Brazilians have proven that they should join the other 36 nations in the world that enjoy visa-waiver privileges. For one thing, fewer than 3 percent who come to the United States on tourist visas overstay. And with government figures that show that some 31 million people there joined the middle class in the past decade, that’s not likely to change. If anything, some Brazilians legally in the United States have been going back home to live.

They come here to shop and invest. We need to make it easier for that to happen, not harder.

Annual trade between South Florida and Brazil tops $13 billion. Brazilians are a big, positive influence on our tourism figures and our sagging luxury-condo market.

The U.S. travel industry, particularly in South Florida, is pushing hard to advocate the change. Experts estimate that if the visa requirement were waived, the number of Brazilians visiting here could double in a short time.

More visitors mean more jobs, particularly in South Florida, which would be the major regional beneficiary of any change that makes it easier for Brazilians to visit the United States.

With the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics fast approaching, allowing Brazil a visa waiver would likely benefit Americans who want to visit that country. It would encourage Brazil to lift the cumbersome burden that requires U.S. citizens to obtain a Brazilian visa before they go, a process that can entail hours of waiting – just as some Brazilians coming here have to undergo long waits.

In the fall, Congress will debate a new law that changes the rules on how to qualify for the U.S. Visa Waiver Program. Key points about passport security and counterterrorism cooperation will remain, and they should.

To qualify for a waiver, the law would have the Department of Homeland Security consider how many people from a country overstayed their visas. Any country with more than a 3 percent overstay rate wouldn’t meet the criteria. That makes more sense than the current policy of weighing how many people’s visa applications were denied.

The rule change wouldn’t just benefit Brazil. Poland, Romania, Chile, Panama and about five other nations would also enjoy visa-free travel under the proposed changes. As long as they meet Washington’s tough anti-terrorism security standards, they should.

The U.S. State Department is taking steps to address the deluge in Brazil: 20 consular positions were added, and about 8,000 people showed up on “Super Saturdays” to get visas. The number of tourist visas issued to Brazilians has more than doubled.

Those numbers prove the State Department measures aren’t enough. It’s time to recognize Brazil’s global prominence and make sure the South American powerhouse qualifies for visa waivers.

Source: Kansascity

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In a long and detailed Travel Warning, the State Department Monday said the number of U.S. citizens arrested, detained, and prosecuted for overstaying their visas in Pakistan this year has “increased markedly across the country.”

According to the report, Americans throughout Pakistan have been “arrested, deported, harassed, and detained for overstaying their Pakistani visas or for traveling to Pakistan with the inappropriate visa classification.”

The Travel Warning, updated from February 2, 2011, noted that Americans who try to renew or extend their visas while in Pakistan “have been left without legal status for an extended period of time and subjected to harassment or interrogation by local authorities.”

The stark warning continues to point to the threat to Americans from al Qaeda, Taliban and militant sectarian groups throughout Pakistan. Although Pakistan’s government has increased security measures, especially in the major cities, it said, terrorists focus on places where Westerners congregate, including shopping areas, hotels, clubs and restaurants, places of worship, schools, or outdoor recreation events.

Terrorists, the State Department says, “have disguised themselves as Pakistani security personnel to gain access to targeted areas” and some Pakistani media reports recently have falsely identified U.S. diplomats, journalists and employees of Non-Government Organizations as spies or as private security personnel.

The Travel Warning includes a detailed list of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, the latest on May 20, when a U.S. consulate vehicle in Peshawar was attacked, killing one person and injuring twelve.

Travel by foreigners to a number of areas, including the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA,) is restricted and the Travel Warning cautions that U.S. embassy and consulate personnel sometimes are not able, because of security restrictions, to provide services for U.S. citizens.

The full report can be found on the State Department website:

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_5540.html

Source: CNN

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Consul General of United States in Kolkata Beth Payne today expressed concern over high visa costs for Indians going to the US and said that these issues were being studied.

“Cost of visa is a huge issue. These concerns, particularly in the IT sector, are being studied at the Congress and steps will be taken”, Payne said here.

US had been trying to be as open as possible, but there was also a need to guard against its misuse, she said at an interactive session organised by Merchants Chamber of Commerce here.

Payne said US companies were taking deep interest in exploration of shale gas for affordable clean energy and Schlumberger, a leading company of her country, had tied up with ONGC for exploration of the gas in West Bengal.

Commenting on the change of government in the state, Payne said there was tremendous interest among US investors to look at opportunities available here.

“We see big interest in the new government and its openness to talk about investments.”

Corruption was, however, a big hindrance for doing business as it rises costs and damages the market, she added.

Source: Economic Times

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Forty-eight members of Congress asked immigration officials to hold off rejecting visa petitions by gay couples when one partner is not a U.S. citizen.

They sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Homeland Security, asking them to delay the rejections and to suspend the deportation of married gay couples until courts determine if the Defense of Marriage Act is constitutional, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

Homeland Security officials said they would exercise discretion on a case-by-case basis but would continue to enforce the law, which remains in effect.

“Right now the department’s position is that they can’t defend [the act] because it’s unconstitutional,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., “If that’s the case, then that leads you to the conclusion that you should not be enforcing it.”

Most U.S. citizens can obtain green cards for their spouses and fiances, but the Defense of Marriage Act keeps same-sex couples from receiving the same benefits.

The Obama administration said in February it would no longer defend the act in court, saying it violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause.

One same-sex couple, Jesse Goodman and his Argentine fiance Max Oliva, said they decided to leave the United States because they were unable to get a visa for Oliva.

“We ran out of options,” Goodman said.

Source: UPI

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The US Department of State on Wednesday launched a new website with information regarding the J-1 visa exchange visitor program. This visa is issued by the United States to exchange visitors participating in programs that promote cultural exchange, especially to obtain medical or business training within the U.S.

The new website includes information in English about the J1 visa categories as well as information regarding the sponsors and application process.

It also includes participant and sponsor information, and the “participant testimonials” section, providing first person accounts of experiences in the United States.

The site also allows those with only mobile access to view key information. With this feature, they are able to reach a wider, more diverse audience globally.

Each year, more than 350,000 students, professors, summer work travel participants, Au Pairs, and camp counselors travel to work or study in the U.S.

Source: Andina

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Russia and the United States will soon agree on three-year multiple entry visas, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle said on Friday.

Russia and the United States will soon agree on three-year multiple entry visas

At their meeting on Thursday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama announced plans to liberalize visa restrictions for businessmen and tourists traveling between the two countries. Under the new agreement, eligible business travelers and tourists would be issued visas valid for 36 months at a unified and reciprocal fee.

“I think that in two months maximum we will sign an agreement to issue new multiple entry visas for three years,” Beyrle said in Russian during an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio station. “The presidents instructed to complete negotiations on the issue, that’s why I expect the agreement to be ready by summer, maximum by fall.”

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin proposed scrapping visa restrictions between the two countries altogether during a meeting with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Moscow in March.

Source: RIAN

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Some Iranian students may seek two-year, multiple-entry U.S. visas, the State Department said on Friday, giving them greater freedom to travel to the United States in a gesture to improve people-to-people ties.

The step is the latest in a series by President Barack Obama’s administration to reach out to the Iranian people and, in particular, to young Iranians despite the long enmity between the two countries.

Students from Iran, which the United States accuses of seeking nuclear weapons, sponsoring terrorism and brutally repressing its people, previously were eligible only for three-month, single-entry visas.

The new guidelines apply to Iranians and their dependents applying to study in “nonsensitive, nontechnical fields” — those that would not contribute to Iran’s nuclear, missile or other weapons-related activities, a U.S. official said.

Under the revised policy, the visas could be valid for two years and allow Iranian students to come and go as often as they wished in that period without applying for a new visa.

Whether they may actually enter the United States and exactly how long they may stay is decided by immigration officers at their port of entry, U.S. officials said.

In a video address, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made clear the U.S. gesture aimed to reach out to young Iranians, many of whom turned out in mass protests against the disputed 2009 reelection of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Those protests, the biggest challenge to the Islamic state since the 1979 revolution that ended the authoritarian rule of the Shah of Iran, were crushed by Iranian security forces who jailed scores of demonstrators.

“We want more dialogue and more exchange with those of you who are shaping Iran’s future,” Clinton said in the message, which the State Department said was posted on Youtube in both English and Farsi.

“Because as long as the Iranian government continues to stifle your potential, we will stand with you,” she added. “We will continue to look for new ways to fuel more opportunities for real change in Iran.”

One U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the visa change aimed to make good on the administration’s pledge of seeking to engage ordinary Iranians.

Obama’s efforts to persuade Iran to cease its suspected pursuit of nuclear arms have so far failed and he has led a push to tighten U.S. and international sanctions on Tehran.

Iran says its nuclear program is to generate electricity, not produce weapons.

In the latest of his annual “Nowruz” messages to mark the Persian new year, Obama on March 20 accused Iran of a two-year “campaign of intimidation and abuse” against its own people.

“These choices do not demonstrate strength; they show fear,” he said, aiming his message at young Iranians. “Though times may seem dark, I want you to know that I am with you.”

Source: Reuters

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After a number of US visas for Georgia citizens recently had their maximum term extended from five to 10 years, the Georgian ambassador in Washington has stated that the next stage in relations between the two countries will be to ‘eliminate the visa regime’.

While Temur Iakobashvili, the Georgian ambassador in Washington described the recent changes to a number of US Visas for Georgian citizens as an “unprecedented success”, he made it clear that the next step was for a visa free regime to be implemented for Georgia, most likely through the country being added to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP).

The VWP allows foreign nationals from certain countries to travel in America for a period of 90 days for business or pleasure without having to obtain a paper visa in advance.  However, travelers must apply for an ESTA before travelling.

The previous maximum term for US visas for Georgian citizens was one year. However, the maximum term for tourist, work, transit and multi-entry visas has been extended to up to 10 years.

Additionally, the maximum term of other visas for has been increased from one year to five. These categories include student, scholar and religious figures visas.

Source: Visa Bureau

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