The Hindu : Front Page : New system to reduce backlog

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Thursday, Sep 22, 2005

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Front Page

New system to reduce backlog

R.K. Radhakrishnan

Miguel Ordenez, acting chief of Visa section at a press conference at the US Consulate-General in Chennai on Wednesday. — Photo: Vino John

CHENNAI: From holding a place in the queue outside the United States Consulate here and "selling the space" to a visa-seeker for a "fee" to squatting in cyberspace on a United States visa application form, the professional squatter has come a long way.

From discarding the queue system to making it mandatory to pay while applying for a visa and adding more interview windows, the United States mission too has travelled a long way to help the visa seeker.

The new system, in place from October 3, will make the visa application process cheaper and also help reduce the backlog, says Miguel Ordenez, acting chief, Visa Section, U.S. Consulate General.

Applicants must pay before making an online visa requisition. No change of name is possible.

Nyda Budig, chief, Non-Immigrant Visa Unit, believes that making the applicants pay upfront will weed out non-serious applicants. With the changes, it has been possible to bring down the wait-list time by about a month, says Mr. Ordenez.

For now, with the transition to a different Visa Facilitation Service provider and the existing backlog, the wait list shows no signs of reducing. Based on the web figures, three weeks ago, the number of applicants from southern States waiting for an appointment was close to 70,000.

"We do not know the exact number. It could be 45,000, it could be 60,000," says Mr. Ordenez, basing his estimate on the fact that anywhere between 20 to 40 per cent of the applicants could be squatters.

"On some days the no-shows are as high as 46 per cent," he told a press conference here after unveiling the new visa procedures.

As of now, the earliest that one can get a visa appointment — through the regular channels — is February 21. There is also a self-selecting emergency appointments system, which is functional since August 22.

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