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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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Anyone attempting to visit the United States as a student, businessman or tourist knows that getting a visa can take weeks or months, and involve several visits to a U.S. embassy or consulate.  U.S. officials say they are aware of the need to improve visa and other services for visitors, and that they are making concerted efforts toward that end.

At a time of weak economic growth and fiscal austerity, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota says America cannot afford to take tourists and other foreign visitors for granted.

“This is about jobs.  Each foreign visitor to our country spends an average of $4,000,” Klobuchar said. “We are talking about some serious money.  In 2009 alone, spending by overseas visitors supported some 900,000 American jobs, and paid $23 billion in wages to American workers.”

Klobuchar is Chairwoman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export Promotion.  She says that from 2000 to 2009, America’s share of global tourism fell by almost a third, costing the country hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue and hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Last year, President Barack Obama signed into law the Travel Promotion Act, which set up a public-private partnership to attract more visitors to the United States.  At a hearing last week, Klobuchar said the initiative can work only if U.S. visa-granting procedures are improved.

“It doesn’t do much good to promote the U.S. to foreign travelers when those foreign travelers can’t get a visa for months to visit the United States of America.  In a recent survey, 73 percent of respondents said they would not visit the U.S. if they knew it would take them two-to-three months to get a visa,” Klobuchar stated. “Well, sadly, in several countries, that is how long it is taking.”

U.S. officials testifying before the subcommittee spoke of efforts to expedite visa applications and boost consular staffing levels.  They also pointed to a growing number of countries, currently three dozen, taking part in a visa waiver program that eliminates the need for a U.S. visa for many types of travel.

The State Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services, David Donahue, says these efforts have helped reverse the decline in the number of foreign visitors to the United States.

“In 2010, 60 million international visitors entered the United States — a 17 percent increase from 2006.  Demand for visas climbed at a dramatic pace in the world’s fastest-emerging economies.  Since 2005, visa issuance in China has doubled, and increased by 50 percent in India, 52 percent in Russia, 24 percent in Mexico, and more than 50 percent in the Middle East and North Africa.  In Brazil, visa issuance has nearly tripled,” Donahue explained.

But Donahue added that the need for prompt visa processing must be balanced against America’s need to scrutinize everyone entering the country following the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.   For instance, he noted that some have suggested adopting video conferencing technology so that U.S. officials can interview visa applicants from afar, rather than forcing them to visit U.S. consulates.  Donahue said that from a security standpoint, that idea is ill-advised.

“The purpose of the in-person interview is to really assess the person standing in front of you and make a determination whether they are going to use the visa properly,” he explained.  “And in a two-dimensional Skype-type situation, even with the best technologies, we do not believe we will be able to make those decisions.  It is a three-dimensional live presence that we feel is important.”

To reduce aggravation and delays after visitors arrive in the United States, the former Bush administration established a “Model Ports of Entry” program.  Under the program, additional Customs and Border Protection officers have been deployed to the nation’s busiest international airports.  Inspection areas have been revamped to make them more welcoming, and express lanes have been established for arriving visitors who need to make connecting flights.

Source: VOA

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The US State Department warned Wednesday that the budget dispute between the White House and Congress could slow the visa application process at embassies and consulates throughout the world.

US President Barack Obama is locked in a test of wills with Republican leadership in Congress, who are seeking deep cuts in federal spending. If the differences cannot be resolved, the US government’s non-essential services could grind to a halt at midnight Friday, when the current spending bill expires.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the agency is working on contingency plans in the event of a shutdown to accommodate foreigners seeking visas or US citizens in need of passports. But he said there could be an effect on the application process because of personnel shortages.

‘There would be an impact, obviously, if only because of the effect of reduced personnel,’ Toner said. ‘But it’s hard for me to say right now whether that would be a significant slowdown or beyond that.’

Toner urged individuals seeking visas or scheduled for interviews early next week to check embassy websites for updates on the status of consular services.

The White House and Democratic leaders in Congress remain in intense negotiations with Republicans to end the standoff. Obama and the Democrats worry severe cuts in federal spending could endanger the fragile economic recovery.

US officials estimate up to 800,000 federal employees could be furloughed if a deal is not reached.

Source: Monsters & Critics

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A citizen of a foreign country who seeks to enter the United States (U.S.) generally must first obtain a U.S. visa, which is placed in the traveler’s passport, a travel document issued by the traveler’s country of citizenship. Certain international travelers may be eligible to travel to the U.S. without a visa if they meet the requirements for visa-free travel. The Visa section of this website is all about U.S. visas for foreign citizens to travel to the U.S.

(Note: U.S. citizens don’t need a U.S. visa for travel, but when planning travel abroad may need a visa issued by the embassy of the country they wish to visit.)

How can I use a visa to enter the U.S?

Having a U.S. visa allows you to travel to a port of entry, airport or land border crossing, and request permission of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspector to enter the U.S. While having a visa does not guarantee entry to the U.S., it does indicate a consular officer at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad has determined you are eligible to seek entry for that specific purpose. DHS/CBP inspectors, guardians of the nation’s borders, are responsible for admission of travelers to the U.S., for a specified status and period of time. DHS also has responsibility for immigration matters while you are present in the U.S.

Types of visa

The type of visa you must obtain is defined by U.S. immigration law, and relates to the purpose of your travel. There are two main categories of U.S. visas:

Nonimmigrant visas – For travel to the U.S. on a temporary basis.

Immigrant visas – For travel to live permanently in the U.S.

Contact U.S Embassy for more information.