No U.S. visas until new year
The first arrivals show up as early as midnight, and by dawn a line has already formed. Word on the streets is that its punishment for some sin–real or imagined–committed by the Government of Belize…the passport scandal, drug trafficking or perhaps too strong a friendship with Cuba. What I’m talking about, of course, is the imminent closure of the consular section of the U.S. Embassy. If you haven’t received your visa by the end of the day Thursday, forget it, because the doors will not reopen until January second. And despite the nasty rumours, U.S. diplomats today told News 5 that the reason for the shutdown is far less sinister.
Tanya Ward, Vice Consul, U.S. Embassy
“We have extensive termite damage, so we’ll be replacing the roof, the floors. We’re essentially almost razing the building and starting from scratch. It will make it a lot more comfortable for people who are applying for visas, for passports, for immigrant visas, as well as for the staff back in the private area.”
Patrick Jones
“One of the questions I’ve heard asked is why not just relocate to another building and continue the service?”
Tanya Ward
“We had talked about that; it worked out to be too complex, running all of the equipment there and moving the computers, moving all of the files. One of the main things we have to have access to is a number of files, both for immigrant visas and non-immigrant visas and it was not feasible to move the filing cabinets and all of the files to another location.”
Patrick Jones
“During the closure, what happens if somebody needs a visa?”
Tanya Ward
“If someone has a true emergency, and we define true emergency generally as a medical emergency, if a person is robbed and needs to travel immediately, then we will actually still be here working and we can deal with some emergency cases. We will be unable to initiate new cases and to help people with everyday travel needs. If people have everyday travel needs they can go to another embassy in the area, Guatemala City, Honduras, Merida, Mexico, and they can go to one of those places to have their visas issued or their passports printed.”
Ward says that since the announcement of the closure of the consular section, there has been a six hundred percent across the board increase in request for services. Ward says that additional staff, including an extra consular officer, have been brought in and they are working through the lunch break to deal with as many applicants as possible before the Thursday deadline. The refurbished consular section is expected to be open for business on the first working day of 2004. The contract for the renovations was awarded to the local company, Medina’s Construction.
