The Hindu Business Line : `US visa renewals in home country to be given priority'

THE State Department is sending "instructions" to all its visa issuing posts overseas to give "special consideration to the extent they can" for people who would normally have benefited from the domestic re-issuance/revalidation of certain types of visas, services for which are being suspended as of July 16.

"We want people to try to give you priority when setting appointments but we are asking for people to use existing appointment systems", remarked Ms Janice Jacobs, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services in the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the State Department.

"You're not going to have a two month wait. And certainly if you do, then we're going to hear back from you and anyone else who has that experience and we will try to take care of that", Ms Jacobs said in response to a query at the Washington Foreign Press Centre. What is being stressed is that some overseas posts have a longer than usual waiting period for appointments but that instructions are being sent to give priority to those who may have otherwise benefited if the State Department continued with its domestic re-issuance service.

The senior official said that while it would be "easier" to go back to the home country for the visa "if you are able to go to a third country, we are going to do everything we can to get your visa processed as quickly as possible." An applicant need not go back to the home country for a visa but Ms Jacobs maintained that this is being encouraged "because when you apply in your home country the consular officers there are most familiar with the local circumstances and are best able to make a determination about your case."

On June 23, the State Department issued a notification that as of July 16 it is shutting down its domestic re-issuance service for six category of visas - the E, H, I, L, O and P - saying that this action is being taken because of a requirement to incorporate a biometric in every visa issued after October 26. And the refrain of senior officials has been that it is not possible for the State Department to carry out this requirement as organisationally it was not possible to set up mini-embassies and consulates all over the US.

The State Department spokesman, Mr Richard Boucher, estimated this Wednesday that some 50,000 applications in the six visa categories were processed last year and that 50 per cent of this were nationals from India. Ms Jacobs confirmed the numbers and went on to make the point that the decision to discontinue was not aimed at any particular nationality. "...not one single Indian has been a hijacker or been in trouble and so why pick on Indians," the senior administration official was asked.

"... I think 46 per cent of the people who have used this service over the years have been Indians...A lot of visas that we renew are people working here in the information technology field and there are a lot of Indians doing that and I think that's why it turned out that way. This is not aimed at any particular nationality. I think that the Indians have over the years benefited the most from this programme", she said.

"Really it's because we cannot collect the fingerprints in the US. That's the primary reason why we're having to end this service", she remarked.