Visa Operations at U.S. Posts in Canada
Gao ID: GAO-04-708R May 18, 2004On October 21, 2002, we reported that consular staff at posts around the world held different views on balancing national security and customer service in the process of adjudicating visas. Since then, the Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs has underscored the importance of visa operations in protecting our nation's security and implemented many changes in visa processing to tighten security screening for applicants worldwide. Because of Canada's proximity to the United States and the fact that many nationals from countries of concern apply for U.S. visas in Canada, Congress asked us to obtain the views of U.S. consular officers in Canada regarding the visa process. In response, we are providing information from consular staff who adjudicate U.S. visas in Canada regarding their perceptions of the importance of national security in the visa process, including impediments that could interfere with efforts to make security a top priority in visa processing.
Consular officers and managers at U.S. posts in Canada said that, despite rising workloads and more labor-intensive processing requirements, they are placing an emphasis on security in visa operations. All of the officers with whom we spoke reported that security was their first concern in visa adjudication. Some officers said security was their top priority because they would consider themselves personally accountable if they failed to notice an applicant who posed a security risk. Other officers cited the Bureau of Consular Affairs' standardized guidance as the source for their focus, while others credited post management with instilling a pro-security tone for visa operations. The officers acknowledged some challenges that could interfere with efforts to make security a top priority in visa processing. For example, some officers reported that new post-September 11 processing requirements for visas were more labor intensive, and they expressed concern that the requirements could reduce the time available for face-to-face interviews with some applicants. While most officers felt that they had enough time to screen applicants carefully for possible security risks, some of the newer officers at posts expressed concern about their ability to remain vigilant if the workload increased. This problem was most severe in Toronto, where workload was high and the consulate's poor space configuration cramped operations.
GAO-04-708R, Visa Operations at U.S. Posts in Canada
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United States General Accounting Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
May 18, 2004:
The Honorable F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
Chairman
Committee on the Judiciary:
House of Representatives:
Subject: Visa Operations at U.S. Posts in Canada:
Dear Mr. Chairman:
On October 21, 2002, we reported that consular staff at posts around
the world held different views on balancing national security and
customer service in the process of adjudicating visas.[Footnote 1]
Since then, the Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs has
underscored the importance of visa operations in protecting our
nation's security and implemented many changes in visa processing to
tighten security screening for applicants worldwide.
Because of Canada's proximity to the United States and the fact that
many nationals from countries of concern apply for U.S. visas in
Canada, you asked us to obtain the views of U.S. consular officers in
Canada regarding the visa process. In response, we are providing
information from consular staff who adjudicate U.S. visas in Canada
regarding their perceptions of the importance of national security in
the visa process, including impediments that could interfere with
efforts to make security a top priority in visa processing. We
interviewed 19 consular officers[Footnote 2] and managers at the four
largest visa-issuing posts in Canada: the embassy in Ottawa and
consulates in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.[Footnote 3] We
conducted our work between January 2004 and March 2004 in accordance
with generally accepted government auditing standards.
Results in Brief:
Consular officers and managers at U.S. posts in Canada said that,
despite rising workloads and more labor-intensive processing
requirements, they are placing an emphasis on security in visa
operations. All of the officers with whom we spoke reported that
security was their first concern in visa adjudication. Some officers
said security was their top priority because they would consider
themselves personally accountable if they failed to notice an applicant
who posed a security risk. Other officers cited the Bureau of Consular
Affairs' standardized guidance as the source for their focus, while
others credited post management with instilling a pro-security tone for
visa operations. The officers acknowledged some challenges that could
interfere with efforts to make security a top priority in visa
processing. For example, some officers reported that new post-September
11 processing requirements for visas were more labor intensive, and
they expressed concern that the requirements could reduce the time
available for face-to-face interviews with some applicants. While most
officers felt that they had enough time to screen applicants carefully
for possible security risks, some of the newer officers at posts
expressed concern about their ability to remain vigilant if the
workload increased. This problem was most severe in Toronto, where
workload was high and the consulate's poor space configuration cramped
operations.
Background:
Since Canadian citizens generally do not need a visa to travel to the
United States,[Footnote 4] consular officers at visa-issuing posts in
Canada process visas almost exclusively for third-country nationals who
are residing in, or visiting, Canada. Many of these third-country
nationals have "landed immigrant" status in Canada, a status similar to
permanent residency in the United States. Consular officers also renew
work and student visas for aliens residing in the United States who
prefer to apply at a post in Canada rather than travel to their home
country. Posts in Canada handle a diverse applicant pool. Nationals of
more than 180 countries applied for visas in Toronto in 2003, and more
than 165 nationalities applied in Montreal. The wide range of
nationalities creates a unique challenge for consular officers, who
must be familiar with official documents from many countries and have
an understanding of circumstances that affect each nationality's
eligibility for a visa. Some third-country national applicants are from
countries of concern and require additional security clearance
processes.
The Bureau of Consular Affairs implemented many changes in visa
processing after September 11 in an effort to tighten security
screening for applicants worldwide. These changes include requiring
interviews for the vast majority of visa applicants, new security
clearance processes for certain types of applicants, and collecting
fingerprints from most visa applicants.[Footnote 5] The Bureau has
issued guidance to keep posts worldwide apprised of these policy and
procedural changes. Since February 2003, Consular Affairs has issued
more than 60 Standard Operating Procedures in an effort to standardize
visa operations worldwide.
In addition to worldwide changes to visa processing, Consular Affairs
implemented changes after September 11 that affected only posts in
Canada. For example, in March 2003, the United States began requiring
that landed immigrants living in Canada from Commonwealth[Footnote 6]
countries and Ireland obtain visas to enter the United States. Prior to
March 2003, certain landed immigrants in Canada who originally came
from Commonwealth countries (including India, Pakistan, and Malaysia)
and Ireland were not required to have a visa or passport to visit the
United States when entering from Canada. The change increased the
workload at posts in Canada, particularly in Toronto.
Consular Officers Said They Are Prioritizing Security:
Overall, the consular managers and officers we interviewed said they
are emphasizing security concerns in visa processing over all other
factors. One consular manager said security concerns trump all other
issues in Canada, such as facilitation of trade and commerce. Several
consular officers reported that they would hold themselves personally
accountable if they issued a visa to an applicant who posed a security
risk to the United States. None of the consular officers said they felt
pressured by their managers to issue visas in cases where they felt the
applicant posed a security risk. One officer reported that she believes
Consular Affairs' overarching policy is for consular officers always to
err on the side of caution. Consular staff in Ottawa pointed to the
results of several validation studies as confirmation that they are
making good decisions on visa applicants. The staff attempted to
contact approximately 300 individuals who had received visas between
January 2002 and November 2003 to verify whether they had returned to
Canada after using their visas to visit the United States; aside from
one individual who they determined had remained in the United States,
they ascertained that all the rest had returned to Canada.
Consular officers cited several sources of guidance from the Bureau of
Consular Affairs as being helpful in determining how to balance
national security and customer service. Some consular officers said the
Standard Operating Procedures were particularly helpful. Consular
managers cited the benefit of attending conferences for consular
section chiefs at the embassy in Ottawa. At these conferences, managers
discussed implementation of post-September 11 changes to visa
processing and ways that posts in Canada could implement them smoothly.
One consular manager said that his policy to prioritize security came
directly from the Ambassador in Ottawa, who said that border security
was the most important issue for posts in Canada.
Some Challenges Could Affect Focus on Security:
Although consular officers said that they placed an emphasis on
security above all else in their visa processing, they reported some
challenges that may negatively affect their ability to remain vigilant.
Post-September 11 processing requirements for visas require more labor-
intensive work for consular officers, such as fingerprinting applicants
and processing special security clearance requests. In addition to the
increased time it takes to adjudicate a visa applicant, the number of
applications increased at posts in Canada, causing backlogs for
appointments and long hours for some consular staff. While officers
said they would always take the time they felt necessary to rule out
any security concerns on an application, some also reported that
workload pressures could affect their vigilance. From our observations
at the busiest post, Toronto, we also questioned whether officers could
remain alert after long days adjudicating visas.
The post in Toronto expected an initial doubling of its workload for
nonimmigrant visas with the imposition of the visa requirement for
landed immigrants and an annual increase thereafter of 10 to 20
percent. Post management reported that Toronto saw a substantial
increase in applications and that the increased numbers may last for 2
years. Toronto's consular package[Footnote 7] for fiscal year 2003
stated that post-September 11 special processing requirements for visas
made operations less efficient and were negatively affecting employee
morale. Toronto expanded the hours during which visa interviews are
conducted to an all-day schedule. Some officers we interviewed spoke of
the busy summer of 2003 as "agonizing" and said they had considered
leaving the Foreign Service. One officer said that he told managers in
both Toronto and Ottawa that he could not perform the required security
aspects of his job at that pace. One consular manager also commented
that officers told him they would like more time to scrutinize cases.
He said that, as new consular officers, they had to learn to make
decisions faster. He did not think he was causing them to make less
security-conscious decisions, but he acknowledged they were under a lot
of stress. Toronto's busy visa operations are exacerbated by
insufficient space and poor physical configuration of the consulate.
The Consul General and the consular section chief in Toronto, as well
as the Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs in Ottawa, acknowledged
Toronto's staff and space problems and said they were being addressed.
Canada's Mission Performance Plan for fiscal years 2005 and 2006
requested an additional consular officer for Toronto for each of these
years and for a redesign of office space to ameliorate these problems.
The post in Montreal expected a doubling of nonimmigrant visa workload
when the visa requirement for landed immigrants went into effect but
only saw a modest 5 percent increase in fiscal year 2003, according to
the post's consular package. Officers in Montreal said the number of
visa applicants they processed daily was reasonable. However, the
post's consular package for fiscal year 2003 reported that post-
September 11 changes in visa processing affected the amount of time
that officers spent on case adjudication and that if State continued to
introduce labor-intensive processing changes without providing
offsetting resources, it would eventually erode the amount of time that
officers could spend face-to-face with applicants. The post estimated
that officers may be devoting 40 percent less time to actual case
adjudication than they did before September 2001.
The post in Vancouver saw a 20 percent increase in visa applications
due to the visa requirement for landed immigrants and noted that post-
September 11 visa processing required additional handling for all
cases, reducing efficiency at the post and causing an appointment
backlog.[Footnote 8] The consular manager reported that he took
security concerns very seriously, yet he also wanted to reduce the
appointment backlog because delayed appointments increased the post's
workload by requiring officers to respond to calls from applicants (or
their attorneys) asking about the backlog. He told us he sets the
number of appointments the post accepts to try to reduce the
appointment backlog. Even when fingerprint scanners were installed at
post in October 2003, adding to the adjudication time per case, he said
the number of appointments per day was kept steady.
Agency Comments and Our Evaluation:
The Department of State provided written comments on a draft of this
report (see enclosure). State agreed with GAO's characterization of
visa operations at U.S. posts in Canada. State noted a number of
actions it had taken to address issues in Toronto, including the
authorization of funds to hire new consular staff and funds for State's
Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations to conduct a review of the
physical infrastructure. Furthermore, the Bureau of Consular Affairs
said it planned to send a Consular Management Assistance Team to
Toronto in May 2004 to assess the consular section and make
recommendations on how to improve the operation.
Scope and Methodology:
To prepare this report, we conducted work at the Department of State,
Department of Homeland Security, and Federal Bureau of Investigation in
Washington, D.C. We conducted fieldwork at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa
and at the consulates in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. We (1)
interviewed management and consular officials at State Department
headquarters, as well as management personnel in charge of operations
at the U.S. embassy and consulates, including the U.S. Ambassador to
Canada and all Consuls General; (2) obtained input from all 19 consular
officers and managers at the four posts who were involved in
nonimmigrant visa processing using a standard list of questions with
follow-up interview questions; and (3) interviewed law enforcement
officials at posts. We spent significant time observing visa processing
and attending interagency meetings at post. We collected and reviewed
data from each post on workload statistics and refusal rates. As we
used this information for background purposes only, we did not assess
the reliability of the data. We also obtained each post's consular
package, the Bureau of Consular Affairs' worldwide guidance for visa
operations, and State's Office of the Inspector General reports.
We are sending copies of this report to other interested Members of
Congress. We are also sending copies to the Secretary of State. We will
make copies available to others upon request. In addition, the report
will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site at http://
www.gao.gov.
If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please
contact me at (202) 512-4128 or at MACROBUTTON HtmlResAnchor
fordj@gao.gov. Kate Brentzel, John Brummet, Lori Kmetz, Janey Cohen,
Mary Moutsos, and Martin De Alteriis contributed to this report.
Sincerely yours,
Signed by:
Jess T. Ford:
Director, International Affairs and Trade:
Enclosure:
Comments from the Department of State:
United States Department of State
Assistant Secretary and Chief Financial Officer:
Washington, D. C. 20520:
Ms. Jacqueline Williams-Bridgers
Managing Director:
International Affairs and Trade
General Accounting Office
441 G Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20548-0001:
APR 27 2004:
Dear Ms. Williams-Bridgers:
We appreciate the opportunity to review your draft report, "Visa
Operations on U.S. in Canada," GAO Job Code 320235.
The enclosed Department of State comments are provided for
incorporation with this letter as an appendix to the final report.
If you have any questions concerning this response, please contact
Elizabeth Pratt, Special Assistant, Bureau of Consular Affairs, at
(202) 663-1152.
Sincerely,
Signed by:
Christopher B. Burnham:
cc: GAO - Kate Brentzel
CA - Catherine Barry
State/OIG - Mark Duda
State/H - Paul Kelly:
Department of State Comments on GAO Draft Report "Visa Operations on
U.S. Posts in Canada" (GAO Job Code 320235):
Thank you for allowing the Department of State the opportunity to
comment on the draft report "Visa Operations at U.S. Posts in Canada,"
which addresses the views of U.S. consular officers in Canada regarding
the visa process.
We appreciate the observations commending our worldwide improvements to
visa processing and the effectiveness of the guidance to officers
through our series of cables on Standard Operating Procedures. We were
also pleased that the report reflected the consular officers'
consistent dedication to meeting the priority goal of protecting U.S.
borders by ensuring that the security of the visa function was
paramount.
Commenting on the growing workload at the Canada posts, particularly
Toronto, the Report notes that some officers fear that their vigilance
might be impaired since they are required to interview greater numbers
of applicants and are responsible for more labor intensive steps in the
visa process, such as biometric collection. We understand that the
additional steps in the visa process can be daunting, but have tried to
reassure consular officers that we understand they will need more time
to do their jobs. We have also sought to provide the additional
resources needed to match increased workload. Toward this end, we have
reviewed the Consular Package submitted by the Canada posts and have
already implemented steps to provide more resources.
As the largest visa processing post in Canada, Toronto has experienced
the greatest increase in workload. The Bureau of Consular Affairs has
already responded to Toronto's need for assistance. In response to
their request, we authorized, $40,500 to hire three Locally Engaged
Staff (LES) on six-month appointments to help with the surge in
workload resulting from the change in visa requirements for certain
Landed Immigrants who previously did not require visas. We also
provided $9,000 to expand the countertops to accommodate biometrics
collection equipment, and $36,000 to create an Eligible Family Member
(EFM) position to assist with biometrics collection.
At this time, Toronto has informed us that further staff increases are
not feasible because of the limited space available in the Consular
Section. We have already scheduled a visit by a Consular Management
Assistance Team (CMAT) to Toronto (May 4-7) in order to assess the
situation there and to determine what additional resources are needed.
In addition, State Department's Office of Overseas Buildings (OBO) has
allotted $20,000 for a space study to suggest improvements to consular
operations in Toronto.
Once again, we appreciate the opportunity to comment on the draft
provided to us.
[End of section]
(320235):
FOOTNOTES
[1] A visa is a travel document that allows a foreign visitor to
present himself or herself at a port of entry for admission to the
United States. In this report, we use the term "visa" to refer to
nonimmigrant visas only. The United States also grants visas to people
who intend to immigrate to the United States. See U.S. General
Accounting Office, Border Security: Visa Process Should Be Strengthened
as an Antiterrorism Tool, GAO-03-132NI (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 21,
2002) for more information on the visa adjudication process.
[2] We interviewed all consular officers currently involved in
nonimmigrant visa processing, plus some additional officers who had
done such processing the year before.
[3] Mission Canada comprises the embassy in Ottawa; consulates in
Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Calgary, and Quebec City; and a
U.S. presence in Winnipeg. The embassy and the six consulates issue
nonimmigrant visas. Montreal issues both immigrant and nonimmigrant
visas.
[4] Citizens of Canada do not need visas except under certain
circumstances. 22 C.F.R. § 41.2(a). For example, if a Canadian is the
fiancé/fiancée of a U.S. citizen, he/she must be in possession of a
nonimmigrant visa. 22 C.F.R. § 41.2(k).
[5] State is installing digital fingerprint scanners at posts
worldwide. All four posts we visited in Canada were equipped with the
scanners.
[6] The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of more than 50
countries primarily composed of the United Kingdom and its former
colonies.
[7] All visa-issuing posts submit consular packages annually to State's
Bureau of Consular Affairs. The packages contain a post's summary
report on all areas of consular work.
[8] All posts we visited used an appointment booking system to control
the number of applicants who arrived per day. Consular managers set the
number of appointments that the posts accepted each day.
