Speed up US visas—Obama

United States, 27th January: The US President Barack Obama has issued instructions to the US State and Home Security departments to speed up US visas for international travelers wanting to come to the US.

40 percent increase in US business visas—US must increase non-immigrant US visas by nearly 40 percent by the year 2013 in Brazil and China, asserted Obama. He was concerned by a decline of 30 percent in the international travelers spending in the US in the last ten years period.

Hence, he stressed to speed up interview process for around 80 percent of applicants for US nonimmigrant visas to the period of three weeks after receipt of their US visa applications. And for this, there was an immediate need for putting resources in place.

The US President has already created a task force for development of a travel strategy aimed at integration of efforts of various government agencies to streamline foreign travel to the US without putting security and safety of the US at any risk or threat.

In the year 2010, US tourism contributed 2.7 percent to the GDP of the nation and resulted in created of 7.5 million jobs, the figures by the White House reveal. And out of 7.5 million jobs thus created in the US, nearly 1.2 million jobs were supported by foreign visitors.

Spending by Indian and Chinese tourists in the US in 2010 was cited to be around $4 billion and $5 billion respectively while Brazilians spent $6 billion during the same year in the US.

Faster US tourist visa processing a boost for job creation and tourism—Faster US visa processing will help the nation attract higher number of foreign visitors to the US, President Obama stated. And as the US economy moves towards the recovery path, it will help in creation of thousands of US jobs, said US Senator Harry Reid.

Increased number of foreign travelers will mean increased foreign spending in the US, and this will create more jobs in the US, Reid further added.

The US Department of State has already launched a pilot scheme last week aimed at streamlining the process of US visa for applicants with low-risk. These applicants include older first time US visa applicants, some categories of younger US visa applicants and those seeking renewal of their US visas.