Cable Praising Visa Express Program From Us Consulate In Jeddah

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DISSEMINATION: CONS INFO: ADM RSO P/E CHARGE: PROG TO SECSTATE WASHDC AMEMBASSY RIYADH AMCONSUL DHAHRAN INFO GCC COLLECTIVE DEPT FOR CA/EX, CA/VO, CA/FPP, NEA/EX, NEA ARP NFATC FOR M/FSI/SPS/CONS E.G. 12958 N/A TAGS: CMGT, CVIS, KFRD, AFSO, ASEC, SA SUBJECT: Lessons Learned in the Implementation of Visa Express in Jeddah 1. (U) Summary. Post concurs with Embassy Riyadh's assessment of the success of the "Visa Express" system implemented countrywide this summer (REF). This "best practice" has greatly benefited our customers, particularly host country nationals, and enhanced mission security at a critical time. Lessons learned in Jeddah, particular regarding the rapid expansion of Visa Express services to encompass all NIV applicants, may be useful to other posts in designing their own "drop box"-based system. Hurry Up and Sweat 2. (U) Visa Express in Jeddah has eliminated long lines outside of the Consulate and considerable overcrowding in the consular waiting room. Given the year-round high temperatures in the KSA, Visa Express has not only benefited the customers' schedules but also their dispositions. 3. (U) It is consular policy to waive interviews for Saudi nationals who, similar to the citizens of other oil-rich Gulf states, travel, invest and study frequently in the United States but pose no significant threat of illegal immigration. Before Visa Express, Saudis or their representatives were required to wait outside the Consulate under the morning sun while each applicant cleared security, and once inside wait in long queues in front of the cashier's window. Eliminating the need for host country nationals to spend several uncomfortable hours at the U.S.

Consulate to obtain a visa has enhance^ Saudi attitudes toward the Consulate and the visa process and greatly reduced the atmosphere of tension for customers and consular staff alike. Ending Third Class Treatment for Third Country Nationals 4. (U) Before Visa Express all TCNs were required to appear for an interview regardless of prior travel to the U.S. TCNs were force to sit for hours in an overcrowded, overheated waiting room while frustrated lines of Saudis snaked around the room. With the Kingdom's huge foreign workforce, the Rummer rush was needlessly complicated as a well-established foreign resident of 20 years was forced to wait for an interview along with a recently arrived, unmarried 20 year-old laborer. 5. (U) Waiving the interview for TCNs who have traveled to the U.S. in the pas&faf'24 months on a multiple-entry visa makes good consular sense. It also makes for a much more pleasant experience both for the applicant whose interview is waived, and for the interviewee who can be in-and-out of the Consulate in an hour and gets to speak to a much-less harried consular officer. If if 6. Except for the fact that implementing such a fundamental change to the way we do business during the peak summer season exaggerated the staff's growing-pains, it became GftrircTcTy clear that Visa Express was a win for the customer and the Consulate. However, the ''overnight' transformation of Visa Express Service to encompass all visa applicants (Ref) has, in Jeddah, mitigated %!&£& of the gains. Doesn't free up consular officers- 1X> ubl <_ -fK< Built in incentive to issue that does serve^ the applicant but not our mission as n»tw of f icers ^Ss- to irrs-uc, with NIV sections understaffed, particularly during seasonal rushes, there is an incentive to issue to questionable or borderline applicants based on paperwork which is easy to forge and which verification is labor intensive and often just not practical with current staffing.)

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/ .'V <-', Issuing on documents - salary and time in-residence DOCUMENTS ARE ^WORTH THE PAPER THEY ARE WRITTEN ON Has not helped moral - FSNs feel they and their expertise not as relevant Miss the opportunity to recognize applicants face to face/fraud/new passports MOST IMPORTANTLY, whereas Visa Express as it was originally implemented enhanced mission security, the new system is not value added. When Visa Express began/all TCNs who ha^ not traveled appeared at the^consulate for an interview^ \$/ith Saudi applicants absent wait inside and outside L.jc< ^ significantly reduced. Now, these applicants submit their passports, pay an additional fee even though it is quite likely they will be refused. Then the consular officer reviews their case and 221g asked for an interview, returned to the travel agent the next day, then travel agent returns to applicant, applicant come to the__coasulai* and is interviewed and approved or refused. I'f approved it takes another ,d_ay for visa - adds several days for the applicant^'fetfe- Except for the few that the officer feeli" can '\^D issue on documentation alone,»us"aTfie foot traffic as would have been if they saved their time and money and came directly to the consulate This consular officers workload has almost doubled, leaving less time for congressional responses, fraud prevention, consular management in general.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR FRAUD low fraud post worth the risk . . \ remote data entry - impossible to check everything, .KVT ^(v^1* reports of selling additional years of validity \P" r .^\iA'J' - overcharging of customers reported / but we can drop this (x\L> v particular company if it continues