The Foreign Service Journal, September 2004

agencies. At the same time, busi- ness and higher education groups complained of corporate execu- tives denied visas, business deals lost, and students delayed in their studies. Jacobs makes no apologies for CA’s focus on security, but says that she and Harty have reached out to business and education groups and have tried to speed processing. Harty has asked all embassy con- sular sections to educate visa applicants about what they should expect, and how to navigate the new pro- cedures. And when security gaps have been revealed, State has taken steps to plug them. For example, in 2002 the GAO criticized CA for not taking action quickly enough in warning domestic security agencies that a visa had been revoked — GAO said at the time that at least 30 individuals were in the United States on revoked visas. Now warnings go out in near-real time through State’s CLASS system and Homeland Security’s Interagency Border Inspection System (IBIS). Jacobs says that in 2003, word of every revocation reached DHS before the visa-holder’s arrival. Similarly, when GAO report- ed that CA had sent visas to the FBI for security checks with improper coding — causing long delays — the agency invested $1 million to upgrade computer sys- tems. Now, when consular officers send sensitive applicant information to the FBI and other govern- ment agencies for review, it travels over secure lines, rather than by telegram. Critics have also questioned CA about whether the two-fingerprint system used by U.S.-VISIT will be ade- quate over the long term. At a hearing in January, House Select Committee on Homeland Security mem- ber Norm Dicks, D-Wash., noted that the FBI uses a 10-print system in its criminal database, and that two prints are sometimes not enough to make a definitive match. “I know there is very strong feeling, both in the House and Senate, that two fingers are inadequate,” Dicks said. Jacobs responded that the National Institute of Standards and Technology has determined that a two-print system is adequate for the time being, and if databases eventually return too many false posi- tives, State can expand to an eight-print system. One area where there is much less controversy than in years past is CA’s need for more personnel. After years of declin- ing staffing, the bureau added 39 new full-time consular cone posi- tions above replacement for attri- tion in 2003, and another 80 this year. These new officers are going through a rigorous training course that includes four new ses- sions on counterterrorism, one of which is given by Central Intelligence Agency personnel. One of the courses deals with visa fraud, while another focuses on interviewing skills. More experienced hands have also been required to undergo additional security training, and Harty has taken steps to standardize consular pro- cedures so that the processes will be identical world- wide. Overcoming Misperceptions Harty and Jacobs have also worked tirelessly to over- come the misperceptions that they believe nearly cost State the visa function. The concern in Congress then was that “the State Department didn’t understand well enough the importance of border security,” Jacobs recalls, a perception she rejects. Ironically, Congress had shown little interest in or knowledge of consular operations for years, except perhaps to lobby for visas requested by constituents on behalf of foreign relatives, and had cut the consular budget and rebuffed the agency’s efforts to upgrade. Indeed, just a decade ago increased consular staffing was unthinkable. At that time, then-Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Mary Ryan had to beg Congress to allow the agency to retain the processing fees from visa applicants to fund its operations. At that time, consular officers had no modern lookout system; instead they checked names against a microfiche list of ineligible people that was usually outdated. Biometric checks were unheard of, and it was all the bureau could do to get Congress to agree to provide funding to let it roll out machine-readable visa systems at consular posts. In 1994, Ryan succeeded in convincing Congress, for the first time, to allow Consular Affairs to keep some of the fees that it collects from visa applicants and use the money to pay for infrastructure improvements. But congressional restrictions on the funding only made it possible to upgrade six posts with the machine-read- F O C U S 26 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 4 One area where there is much less controversy than in years past is CA’s need for more personnel.