Tourism officials tackle visa reform
Urge easier system for applications

By Katie Johnston
The Boston Globe

November 04, 2011


The wait to get a tourist visa to visit the United States is legendary in some places, so much so that the United Kingdom once raised a banner in front of a US Embassy in India reading: “Come to the UK - no line.’’



The arduous process of getting a US visa, particularly in emerging nations such as India, China, and Brazil, is costing the United States and Massachusetts a share of the fastest-growing segment of travel and tourism and hurting an industry that accounts for about one in 10 jobs in both the state and the nation. Over the past decade, as the United States tightened visa laws following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the nation’s share of overseas travelers has shrunk from 17 to 12 percent, according to the US Travel Association, a trade group.

Now, travel and tourism officials in Massachusetts are joining the US Travel Association in a campaign to lower barriers to international travelers seeking US visas. Several such bills are pending in Congress.

Simplifying the application procedure would not only bring in more tourists, local officials said, but would make it easier for foreign business travelers and families of international college students to visit, providing additional boosts for hotels, restaurants, and stores. Regaining the lost market share in overseas tourism by 2015 and sustaining it through 2020 could infuse an additional $390 billion into the US economy and create 1.3 million jobs, the travel association said.

This increase in international travel would pump about $1.5 billion into the New England economy by 2020, according to the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“We are not compromising security by allowing an easier visa process,’’ said US Representative William R. Keating, a Democrat who represents the South Shore and Cape Cod. “In fact, we can be enhancing it at the same time because of the partnerships we create with some of the other countries.’’

The number of international long-haul travelers is growing by 60 million people a year, according to the US Travel Association. But the United States risks losing a large share of this market with strict visa requirements that are sometimes impractical, such as in-person interviews.

In Brasilia, for example, the typical wait time for an interview is 105 days. Many large cities in fast-growing travel markets such as China, Brazil, and India, don’t even have visa processing locations, meaning some people have to travel 1,000 miles or more for a three-to-five-minute interview.

Among the travel association’s recommendations to Congress and the State Department: conducting videoconference interviews, expanding the visa waiver program beyond the 37 countries where citizens aren’t required to obtain US visas, and reducing interview wait times to 10 days or less.

“Our competitors see what we’re putting people through, and they’re taking our visitors,’’ said Patricia Rojas, vice president of government relations for the US Travel Association.

The process became more complicated after the Sept. 11 attacks, when new laws required more scrutiny of people applying for US visas. But officials at the Bureau of Consular Affairs, which oversees visa applications for the State Department, say delays in rapidly industrializing nations, such as Brazil, are mostly related to the surge of demand for visas as incomes rise and more people travel.

Consular Affairs is adding staff and extending hours to speed the process in some countries, officials said. Wait times are down to 12 days or less at 90 percent of the consulates.

The effort to make the visa process easier is being met with resistance from some groups, including the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC.

“Over half of America’s over 12 million illegal immigrant population are visa overstays, and there are no safeguards in place to make sure that visa holders leave America when they are supposed to,’’ said president William Gheen.

International travelers accounted for 10 percent of visitors to the state last year and 14 percent of visitor spending, pumping $2 billion into the local economy, the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism says.

Patrick Moscaritolo, president of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, noted that the Corporation for Travel Promotion, a public-private partnership between the travel industry and the US government, will soon launch the country’s first-ever marketing campaign to promote the United States as a tourist destination, most likely targeting several countries where obtaining visas can be difficult.

This is a “total disconnect,’’ said Moscaritolo. “ ‘Come to America, come to America, come to America.’ Oh wait a minute, you have to wait three months to get a visa to come to America, and you can go to Europe tomorrow.’’

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