Due to changes in visa legislation, American educational institutions are losing students and cutting scholarship programs, corporations are forced to change production plans and resolve conflicts with clients and staff, and foreign tourists and businessmen prefer to spend their money outside the United States. An increasing number of high-ranking representatives of American education, business, and science are inclined to believe that the obstacles arising during the visa issuance process create a whole system of refusals and deprive the United States of the benefits brought by foreigners.
Despite the protests, the administration of George W. Bush still insists on the effectiveness and necessity of the new rules to protect the country from the terrorist threat. “In the conditions that have developed after September 11, we do not think that we can afford a mistake made during the accelerated visa issuance procedure,” said a State Department official working with visas. Opponents of the White House believe that the excessively long visa issuance process is damaging the United States in the area of public diplomacy. Thus, the United States is sending hostile messages to the world and aggravating its negative image shaped by the war in Iraq, opponents of strict visa rules believe. “Our commercial, research, and academic institutions have always benefited from the exchange of people, ideas, and knowledge. We need to protect ourselves, but we should not go too far and lose the advantages of an open society,” says one of the supporters of repealing the new visa issuance order.
As The Washington Post reminds in its publication, all 19 terrorists who hijacked the planes on September 11, 2001, entered the United States on genuine American visas. Most of these people did not undergo interviews with American consular officials. Based on these facts, the U.S. administration introduced a new visa issuance procedure that came into force on August 1 of the current year. One of the key changes in the visa rules was the conduct of personal interviews for thousands of visa applicants who previously did not require such procedures. Until the completion of a thorough check, which is sometimes carried out by FBI employees for several months, a significant number of those wishing to obtain an American visa cannot do so.
Starting from January 5 of next year, American authorities intend to take fingerprints from all visa holders arriving in the United States through air and sea ports. In addition, recipients of nonimmigrant visas will be required to provide fingerprints when obtaining the visa. By October 2004, most citizens of countries that do not require a visa to enter the United States will need to have passports suitable for automated checks.
Among those who have significantly suffered from the new visa rules are even British citizens who need to obtain visas for long-term work in the United States. As Lenta.ru notes, now obtaining such a visa takes one to two months instead of two weeks.