The US Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance (ECA) is just one of the bodies that is welcoming the introduction of the Visa Processing Improvement Act, introduced by Senators Amy Klobuchar and Jerry Moran, which seeks to solve the problems of long visitor visa appointment wait times. The ECA says visa delays are significantly harming the business events sector.
In June, Travel News reported that the US Travel Association wanted visa-related obstacles to tourism in the US to be removed. Geoff Freeman, US Travel Association President and CEO, told journalists at IPW (PowWow) that Americans were paying the price for years of chronic underinvestment in technology and staffing by the federal government in the US air travel environment. He called for the lowering of visa interview wait times for first-time visa applicants (which currently average more than 500 days in the top-10 visa-requiring markets worldwide, excluding China).
According to travelweekly.com, the Visa Processing Improvement Act would require the State Department to:
- set interview wait time goals,
- offer a fee for expedited processing, and
- provide visitors the opportunity to extend their visas while in the US.
Additionally, the State Department would receive the authority to waive in-person interviews for previously vetted, low risk non-immigrant visa applicants and test the viability of video-conferencing visa interviews for previously vetted applicants from Global Entry countries.
Tori Emerson Barnes, Executive VP of Public Affairs and Policy for the US Travel Association, described the Act as essential to increasing the capacity and number of staff at international consulate offices, and setting visa-processing goals and benchmarks.
"There has been a disastrous lack of progress on essential travel services across the federal government," said Emerson Barnes. "Interview wait times have remained staggeringly high, deterring travellers and hindering US global competitiveness. A goal-driven approach and increased accountability from the Biden administration is needed to resolve this persistent issue."
