15 May 2004	Saturday	24 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

ISLAMABAD, May 14: Assistant Secretary for Bureau of Consular Affairs Maura Harty on Friday said the US administration intended to issue more visas to Pakistani nationals this year, compared with last year.

"We have plans to issue more visas to Pakistani students, businessmen and other visitors than the last year and we hope to continue this programme in future also," Ms Harty told reporters here at the American Centre.

Ambassador Harty, who has also served as the executive secretary of the Department of State, before assuming the current position, is on a two-day visit to Pakistan. She will leave Pakistan on Saturday.

She said in the aftermath of 9/11 incidents, the American policies had undergone massive changes to strike a balance between open doors and secure borders by providing security not only to the Americans but also to those coming to the US.

Immediately after September 11 incidents, she said, the demand for US visas decreased by 40 per cent the world over. "But we are beginning to see more travel in the coming years," she observed.

"We want more students, visitors and immigrants," she said reminding that the US had a $88 billion tourism and travelling industry and one in every eighth adult was attached with some kind of travelling business.

Similarly, the student industry is a $12 billion worth and therefore the US government would love to see more Pakistani students coming to the US in their pursuit of higher education.

When her attention was drawn towards a recent uproar in Pakistan's Senate as some parliamentarians on an official visit to US were called for interviews, she said: "We do not mean to disrespect parliamentarians of this nation or any other nation but the law does give us discretion in respect of collecting biometric feature for a non-immigrant visa."

"We just want a safest experience for everyone whosoever visits the US, be it students, businessmen or a parliamentarian," she said.

"These (provisions like interviews) are not demeaning processes but legal obligation and we must uphold the law," she said, adding that instructions had been issued to the consulates and embassies not to demean, insult or offend in any way the individuals coming for interviews for visas.

About the backlog of visa adjudication, she said the number was very high in the past but now we have speeded up the process and last year 7.1 million visa cases around the world were adjudicated. Of that 7.1 million, only 2.2 per cent needed to be sent back to Washington for special name checks etc. Now such cases are settled in less than three weeks time while earlier a year ago a month or so was needed, she said.

The visa processes have been made more efficient. Besides, consulates and embassies in different countries have been told to give special attention to the students by giving them earlier appointments and by making special provisions for them by opening separate windows because in many cases students missed semester for not giving them early appointment dates.

Ambassador Harty said 211 consulates and embassies all over the world adjudicated visas, of which 17 had a waiting time of more than 30 days, when here in Pakistan it's a week or less.

"I am very proud of what the US embassy here in Pakistan is doing to save the students time," she said.

She assured the press that the US government never decided visa adjudication or law-enforcement actions like deportation of any kind on the basis of ethnicity, religion or gender. "Every case is decided on its merits and facts at hand," she said.

We are trying to be more transparent and to discourage tendencies like identity fraud etc. The US government is developing requirements like passports with biometric information, she said.

The October 26, 2004 deadline for machine readable passports applies only to 26 visa waiver countries, she said, but the US would like to see every country develop secure documentation processes as early as they could. But there is no legal deadline for such passports for other countries, she said.

Ambassador Harty said more than 170,000 employees of Department of Home Land Security were working day and night to provide greater security to the US for which they had also developed a number of programmes and working on entry and exit system electronically to track down people who entered the United States.