[US visa] Getting a visa can be tough for travelers to U.S

[AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>]

Tin du+o+'i dda^y co' the^? bo^? i'ch cho ba'c na`o ddang chua^?n bi. xin 
visa My~. Ha?i.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 10:45:23 -0500 (CDT)
From: Thanh C. Nguyen <ncthanh@csd.uwm.edu>

Well, we are not the only ones who had/has to go thru this odeal :). 
See the CNN article bellow.

-Thanh.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
   
  Tourist or potential immigrant?
  
Getting a visa can be tough for travelers to U.S.

   June 17, 1997
   
   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Everybody has a story. The Indonesian couple who
   canceled a U.S. vacation when only the wife got a visa, the Australian
   barred from the land of the free because he didn't have a job, the
   elderly Indian woman who needed a lawyer to see her new American
   grandchild.
   
   Getting a tourist or business visa for even a short U.S. visit can be
   frustrating, sometimes taking months or years if granted at all,
   especially for travelers coming from developing countries.
   
   It doesn't help if you know someone. The Australian's cousin works for
   the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Indonesian man's
   sister works at her embassy in Washington.
   
                         ____________________________
                                       
                              Hoping for a visa?
                           [5]Tips from the experts
                         ____________________________
                                       
   "My brother has a job. He's in his 50s. What's he going to do here?"
   asked Aleida Palenewen, an information officer at the Indonesian
   Embassy. "He just wanted to see me."
   
   U.S. diplomats gave Palenewen this advice: "If your relatives or friends
   have money, tell them to go to Europe. It's too much trouble to come
   here."
   
  Travelers must bear burden of proof
  
   The temporary U.S. visa system is based on a law that views every
   applicant as a likely immigrant and that puts the burden of proof on
   foreign travelers to show they don't plan to stay permanently in
   America.
   
   "People need to show they have ties to their country -- employment, a
   house, family. But if they're making $10 a month selling clothes, they
   aren't likely to return (home)," said a State Department official,
   speaking on condition of anonymity. "America is a very desirable place."
   
   U.S. officials say there's no income requirement for a tourist or
   business visa, which allows stays of up to six months with an extension.
   
   Yet those who apply for temporary U.S. visas in consulates and embassies
   around the world often are asked for financial documents such as proof
   of income and home ownership. And critics say consular officers use
   profiles to reject applicants: young, single, unemployed women are seen
   as husband hunters, for example, and unattached young men are viewed as
   looking to get on the road to a better life.
   
   Attorney Michael Maggio, who teaches immigration law at the American
   University, said some consular officers have a "three-suit rule" to weed
   out poor applicants who are high risk of staying permanently in the
   United States. If a person is wearing a different suit in his passport
   and visa photos and in line then he has enough money for a nice
   wardrobe, he said.
   
   "They also look at addresses," he said. "The consular officers know who
   lives in the Beverly Hills and on the Park Avenues of Bombay [Mumbai]."
   
  Harsh penalties for overstaying visas
  
   Visitors who overstayed their visas account for 40 percent of the
   estimated 5 million illegal immigrants in American, the INS says.
   
             Countries participating in U.S. visa waiver program:
              __________________________________________________
                                       
                                   Andorra
                                  Argentina
                                   Austria
                                  Australia
                                   Belgium
                                    Brunei
                                   Denmark
                                   Finland
                                    France
                                   Germany
                                   Iceland
                                   Ireland
                                    Italy
                                    Japan
                                Liechtenstein
                                  Luxembourg
                                    Monaco
                               The Netherlands
                                 New Zealand
                                    Norway
                                  San Marino
                                    Spain
                                    Sweden
                                 Switzerland
                                United Kingdom
                                       
   But the situation is improving. Out of 25 million non-immigrants
   admitted to the United States last year, the INS estimates 98.5 percent
   returned home.
   
   The 1996 immigration law that went into effect April 1 cracks down on
   those who don't leave when their visas run out. Visitors who overstay
   their visas by six months will be barred from entering the United States
   for the next three years. The penalty rises to 10 years for overstaying
   a year or more.
   
   "They have tough rules for a reason," said Elaine Komis, an INS
   spokeswoman. "Sometimes, though, I guess it can feel unfair."
   
   Komis said one of her cousins from Australia had no trouble visiting
   America with his father when the 28-year-old had a job at home, but once
   he became unemployed he was denied a visa for a second U.S. visit, she
   said.
   
  Waivers for some countries
  
   Now, however, Australia is among 25 countries in a waiver program that
   lets citizens from those countries enter the United States without a
   visa (see sidebar for complete listing). The pilot project started in
   1988. To qualify, countries must have a visa denial rate of 2 percent or
   less, something European countries such as France, Germany, Switzerland
   and the United Kingdom easily meet.
   
   So far, increasingly prosperous Asian nations haven't made the grade.
   More U.S. visas go to South Korea than any other country, some 512,000
   last year, but 4 percent of applicants were refused, the State
   Department says.
   
   "They make you feel you have to beg," businessman Bahm Hyo-ryol grumbled
   as he stood in a visa line outside the U.S. Embassy in Seoul.
   
  Persistence can pay
  
   As the global economy creates growing middle classes, the State
   Department is moving to keep up with more casual travelers. The agency
   computerized its visa application process and offers 10-year visas for
   frequent visitors.
   
   Persistence sometimes pays off.
   
   Vic Goel, a Washington immigration attorney, helped an Indian couple
   bring to America the man's mother so she could be present when his first
   child was born. The grandmother had been refused a visa twice.
   
   Goel wrote a letter to the U.S. consulate in New Delhi, arguing that
   most of her family lived in India, she had leased the same house for 50
   years, didn't speak English "and her life would be miserable in the
   U.S." She got a visa and a chance to hold her grandchild in her arms.
   
   "It's so subjective," Goel said of the visa process. "The problem is, it
   ends up to be discriminatory. People can't visit America because they
   live in a country whose standard of living isn't as good as ours."
   
   Still, there's no question that for many travelers a glimpse of the
   American dream isn't enough. Some 25 percent of the 340,000 immigrants
   admitted as permanent residents to the United States in 1995 originally
   came in on tourist or business visas, the INS says.
   
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