U.S. Consulate reopens with new procedures
It has been closed for all but emergency business since October ninth of last year. And when the consular section of the U.S. Embassy finally reopened today there were new procedures to match the fresh decor. Patrick Jones was at the front of the line this morning and files the following report.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
The renovated Consular Section brings with it more than improved aesthetics and visitor comfort. Starting this week, the new procedure for non-immigrant visa application, also known as US-VISIT, goes into effect. United States Ambassador Russel Freeman says the new system will minimize fraud and help to keep terrorists out of his country.
Russel Freeman, U.S. Ambassador to Belize
“The need for the system, for the new finger printing system here, it’s a worldwide for us. It’s to protect our borders, for the security of the United States, and for the security of the individual that is applying for a visa. In other words, if that person losses his visa or his passport, someone else won’t be able to impersonate him.”
Robin Haase, Consul, United States Embassy
“First thing the applicant will do upon arrival at the interview window is prepare to give their finger print by placing the right index finger on the little scanner.”
But that now famous finger printing is only one part of the visa process. Robin Haase is the U.S. Consul.
Robin Haase
“They will first submit their documents to the check in window. At that point, my staff will be doing the data entry of the person’s visa application. Then that visa application will be passed to one of the consular officers for interview. At that point we will call the applicant up through the P.A. system to the window. We will then take the ten, fifteen seconds it takes to take their fingerprints and proceed with the interview. If the person is deemed to be issueable then we will tell the person when they may come back to collect their visa. It will usually be the following day at three-thirty.”
According to Haase, the process from start to finish should take no more than forty-five minutes to an hour. But what happens to visa holders whose document was issued prior to January fifth?
Russel Freeman
“You won’t need to have any finger prints here in Belize, but you will be fingerprinted when you arrive in the Untied States at the port of entry.”
Robin Haase
“At the point of application, we at the present time are simply capturing the fingerprint image and it will be associated in the computer database with that person’s visa, so that when that person arrives at the port of entry and their fingerprint there is taken, the two will be bale to be compared to verify that this persons that’s appearing at the border with the visa is in fact the same person to whom that visa was issued.”
Freeman says that no person applying for visa will be required to have their picture taken at the Embassy. A digital copy of photographs submitted locally at the time of application will be placed on file and the information sent to a central database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.
Russel Freeman
“The information, your fingerprints that we receive are stored in Washington. It’s a secured information, it’s not given out to anybody other than to law enforcement personnel with the need to know.”
Robin Haase
“It will be private, because it’s all considered to be secure information.”
Patrick Jones
“And there are no exemptions?”
Robin Haase
“Generally not exemptions. In fact even if a court of law wanted some of the information, they would have to go through a long procedure and actually establish the need to have that information released. The other exemption would be if you the applicant signed a waiver saying that you didn’t care if we give your information to some third party.”
The U.S.-VISIT program is costing the United States government three hundred and thirty million dollars, and although Belize is not on any terrorist watch list, Haase says the system does not discriminate.
Patrick Jones
“Belize is a country friendly to the United States, there are no known terrorists living here. Why is it that we have to come here and get our fingerprints taken?”
Robin Haase
“Basically because it’s a worldwide program and we don’t know who these people here all the time that enter on passports or on visa. Generally speaking, even if a government may be friendly to the U.S., that doesn’t mean there are individuals that may not be.”
Patrick Jones
“While the number of people lining up to get visa to travel to the United States is not expected to go down any time soon, officials here say once the initial hang-ups about the changes are overcome, life for it will be smooth sailing, or flying, for Belizeans headed north. Patrick Jones, for News 5.”
Applicants under fourteen and over the age of seventy-nine, as well as those travelling for diplomatic purposes will not be subjected to fingerprinting.
