U.S. tourist industry blasts new visa regulations

New visa regulations issued by the U.S. government are stirring up a hornet’s nest among travelers and raising concerns within the American leisure industry.

Long lines at U.S. embassies overseas, mad travelers whose visa applications are now held back for months and millions of dollars churned out in wheeling-and-dealing operations were part of the jarring picture painted by American tourism officials as they carped a State Department plan intended to increase the number of foreign travelers who must be screened out in personal interviews before traveling to the United States, either on business or leisure purposes.

“More personal interviews will cost the U.S. tourist and travel industries hundreds of millions of dollars, plus thousands of jobs,” said John Marks, chairman of the Tourism Corporate Chamber during a hearing at the Government Reform Committee in the House of Representatives.

“Personal interviews have been in force for years, but consular officers used to have ample wiggle room to decide which visas applicants were to be interviewed,” Janice Jacobs, Undersecretary of State for Visa Services, commented.

Beginning August 1, the U.S. State Department will implement much tougher conditions before issuing entry visas.

Mr. Marks and other industry leaders who spoke in the hearing said they are for the new security measures, yet they called on lawmakers to exert some leverage on the State Department, hoping that this agency could be more resilient in enforcing the new regulations and would eventually allow a transition period.

Nearly six million non-immigrant visas were issued last year.

Another security regulation that took a lot of flak was the October 1 deadline for travelers from 27 countries –mostly European who don’t need visas for staying up to 90 days in the U.S.- to get machine-readable electronic passports.