‘New US security plans not affecting visitors’

It is “too early” to say if or how new security arrangements implemented at the US ports of entry are affecting visitor arrivals and applications for visas, said Chief Consul General Eugene Sweeney at the US Embassy in Port-of-Spain. But he insists the measures were not intended to say “less travel to the US was better.”

Sweeney was speaking at a press conference at the USIS on Marli Street, Port-of-Spain on the new measures to fingerprint and photograph visitors to the US. He said because the measures were implemented on January 5, “it was too early” to say if there has been a decrease in visa application at the embassy, since this is usually a slow period at the embassy. However, Sweeney emphasised that it was never the intention of the US government to have less travel to the country as a result of the measures. He said the US wanted the tourist dollars and was simply making it safer to travel. He said the process added just 15 more seconds to the screening process on arrival in the US.

He said as far as he was aware, there were no protests about the measures from citizens or government officials, since the process was in the making for just over a year, and the public relations campaign to make persons aware had been ongoing for months locally. Regarding how the measures would prevent visa scams, Sweeney said while nothing was fool-proof, he hoped the scams would be made difficult and people would think twice about getting visas from anywhere besides the embassy. Sweeney also said he didn’t anticipate a mad rush for visas before March, when new visas requiring fingerprints would be introduced locally. And he warned that every application for a visa is new and there is a possibility that an application can be denied, even if a person had a visa. He said a small percentage of the US$380 million allocated by Congress for introducing the new technology would be used in Trinidad for the installation of new equipment to create the new visas.

Sweeney reiterated that there are no plans in the immediate future to increase fees for visas and the price was still US$100, and that persons with US visas issued in 1994/1995 with the coloured ink stamp should be renewed, since they could be deemed invalid “any day.” He said exceptions to the new process would apply for diplomatic and official visas, those requiring visas for medical emergencies and applicants under the age of 14 and over the age of 79. He also assured that all visas issued between now and March will be valid until their expiration date. The new procedure is part of the “US-Visit” programme, which is designed to protect the US and its international visitors against crime and terrorism. Travellers entering the US under the visa waiver programme are not subject to the new requirements.