Thwarted Travelers

The waiting time to obtain a visa in some countries can be up to 100 days, according to the trade group U.S. Travel Association, and travelers who do not live in or near a city where an American consulate is located may have to spend hundreds of dollars in travel expenses for mandatory face-to-face interviews.

“There is nothing, absolutely nothing, about a 100-day wait time to make us any more secure,” Geoff Freeman, chief operating officer of the association. “That is costing our economy dearly.”

Global long-haul travel grew by 40 percent from 2000 to 2010, the association said, but the United States’ share fell to 12.4 percent from 17 percent. The association calculated that by failing to keep pace, the United States lost 78 million potential visitors who would have generated $606 billion in spending.

The association is pushing for legislation that would reduce waiting time for visas by adding personnel and reassigning consular officers to high-demand markets, waiving the in-person interview for applicants who are renewing visas, introducing a pilot videoconferencing program to conduct interviews and expanding the visa waiver program.

In recent months, members of both the Senate and the House have introduced eight bills to stimulate travel to the United States.

In an interview, Deputy Secretary of State Thomas R. Nides said the correlation between visa issuance and spending is undisputed. “We’re very much focused on an ongoing dialogue” that would facilitate legitimate travel and job growth, he said. “But it is a balancing act.” Every decision “has to be made in light of national security,” he added.

But despite increased demand — visa processing jumped 48 percent in China and 63 percent in Brazil in the last three months of 2011 compared with the period a year earlier — the waiting time for visa interviews has decreased. In the meantime, other countries are aggressively courting travelers from countries not part of the waiver program. In July, Canada introduced 10-year multiple entry visas for all countries that require a visa, including Brazil and China, and in August announced the opening of three new visa application centers in Brazil, according to the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, a trade group. “Previous policies were based on our views of the 20th century world and need to evolve,” said David F. Goldstein, president and chief executive.

Shane Downey, director of public policy for the Global Business Travel Association, said a speech at the group’s recent annual convention in Denver that included discussion of visa reform touched a nerve. “We immediately started receiving e-mails” about members’ frustrations, he said.

Steven Hacker, president of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events, said: “When international buyers and sellers try to come and can’t, they go to other countries,” he said. “Ten years ago emerging countries like China, Brazil and India were not nearly as sophisticated as they are today, so there wasn’t much demand.”

He told of a recent exhibition of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, an event for the construction industry held every three years, when the visa application for one person in a large group was rejected at the last minute, so the whole group was unable to attend.

Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, said his organization also loses many visitors at its annual show from markets like China. “I believe the U.S. consulates and embassy in China have been responsive but are understaffed and under-resourced,” he said. “Still, we hear of many visa denials for unknown reasons.”

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