04 July 2004	Sunday	15 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

WASHINGTON, July 3: All Muslim and Arab visa seekers are not cleared by Washington and most of the applications are still processed at the US missions abroad, US officials say.

Officials at the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security told Dawn that applications would continue to be processed at embassies and applicants would be interviewed as before.

They said that some cases were always referred to Washington for inter-agency clearance even before the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

"But no instructions have been issued to US missions to send all applications to Washington. No such proposal is even under consideration," said an official at the State Department.

Officials at the Homeland Security, when contacted for comment, said they also had received no such instruction but directed the correspondent to a State Department official who deals with visa policies.

Asked if the department was considering any proposal to change the current practice, the official said: "No, I am not aware of any such proposal."

The State Department and DHS officials also contradicted a recent media report that consular officers at US mission no longer have power or discretion to issue or reject a visa.

They said that it was still the consular officer who decided to issue or not to issue a visa and discretionary powers of the consular officer had not been withdrawn.