State Department Memo About Us Consulate In Jeddah

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED FINDINGS IN JEDDAH The consular section has not fully recovered from the effects of 9/11. There remains a feeling of lack of support, almost betrayal by C A and the Department. Visa operations are almost entirely in the hands of the first tour officer supported by a competent and dedicated part time vice consul. The consular chief does not spend sufficient time actually doing the work and needs to be more hands on. The Visas Viper committee is functioning, but is not well informed. None of the people I interviewed had even seen the August 2002 revised Viper instructions. The consular section is not certain that it is receiving all ALDAC cables and has actual examples of cables that did not reach them. This is a problem that has to be resolved in the commo section or it is a problem in the post dissemination system. Most of the problems with the current visa process are policy problems that will need to be resolved in Washington.