The Foreign Service Journal, September 2004

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 23 o be a State Department consular officer overseas is to have one of the most challenging of all Foreign Service positions. Besides its responsibility for issuing American passports and providing American citizen services overseas, the Bureau of Consular Affairs handles visas. These CA officers — often the junior-most Foreign Service employees — have to play both the role of welcoming envoy to the millions of visitors who want to come to the United States each year to have fun, to do business, or to study, and the role of stern security guard against terrorists and criminals who would do America harm. The pressure is, and always has been, immense. F O C U S O N C O U N T E R T E R R O R I S M T HE B RAVE N EW W ORLD OF V ISA P ROCESSING T T HE EVENTS OF 9/11 AND S TATE ’ S NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH THE D EPARTMENT OF H OMELAND S ECURITY HAVE FOREVER ALTERED CONSULAR WORK . B Y S HAWN Z ELLER Phil Foster