#30

DISSEMINATION: CONS
INFO: ADM RSO P/E
CHARGE: PROG

TO SECSTATE WASHDC
AMEMBASSY RIYADH
AMCONSUL DHAHRAN
INFO GCC COLLECTIVE

DEPT FOR CA/EX, CA/VO, CA/FPP, NEA/EX, NEA ARP

NFATC FOR M/FSI/SPS/CONS

E.G. 12958 N/A

TAGS: CMGT, CVIS, KFRD, AFSO, ASEC, SA

SUBJECT: Lessons Learned in the Implementation of Visa

Express in Jeddah

1. (U) Summary. Post concurs with Embassy Riyadh's

assessment of the success of the "Visa Express" system
implemented countrywide this summer (REF). This "best
practice" has greatly benefited our customers, particularly
host country nationals, and enhanced mission security at a
critical time. Lessons learned in Jeddah, particular
regarding the rapid expansion of Visa Express services to
encompass all NIV applicants, may be useful to other posts
in designing their own "drop box"-based system.

Hurry Up and Sweat

2. (U) Visa Express in Jeddah has eliminated long lines

outside of the Consulate and considerable overcrowding in
the consular waiting room. Given the year-round high
temperatures in the KSA, Visa Express has not only
benefited the customers' schedules but also their
dispositions.

3. (U) It is consular policy to waive interviews for Saudi

nationals who, similar to the citizens of other oil-rich
Gulf states, travel, invest and study frequently in the
United States but pose no significant threat of illegal
immigration. Before Visa Express, Saudis or their
representatives were required to wait outside the Consulate
under the morning sun while each applicant cleared
security, and once inside wait in long queues in front of
the cashier's window. Eliminating the need for host country
nationals to spend several uncomfortable hours at the U.S.
Consulate to obtain a visa has enhance^ Saudi attitudes
toward the Consulate and the visa process and greatly
reduced the atmosphere of tension for customers and
consular staff alike.

Ending Third Class Treatment for Third Country Nationals

4. (U) Before Visa Express all TCNs were required to appear

for an interview regardless of prior travel to the U.S.
TCNs were force to sit for hours in an overcrowded,
overheated waiting room while frustrated lines of Saudis
snaked around the room. With the Kingdom's huge foreign
workforce, the Rummer rush was needlessly complicated as a
well-established foreign resident of 20 years was forced to
wait for an interview along with a recently arrived,
unmarried 20 year-old laborer.

5. (U) Waiving the interview for TCNs who have traveled to

the U.S. in the pas&faf'24 months on a multiple-entry visa
makes good consular sense. It also makes for a much more
pleasant experience both for the applicant whose interview
is waived, and for the interviewee who can be in-and-out of
the Consulate in an hour and gets to speak to a much-less
harried consular officer.

If if

6. Except for the fact that implementing such a fundamental

change to the way we do business during the peak summer
season exaggerated the staff's growing-pains, it became
GftrircTcTy clear that Visa Express was a win for the customer
and the Consulate. However, the ''overnight' transformation
of Visa Express Service to encompass all visa applicants
(Ref) has, in Jeddah, mitigated %!&£& of the gains.

Doesn't free up consular officers- 1X> ubl <_ -fK<

Built in incentive to issue that does serve^ the
applicant but not our mission as n»tw of f icers
^Ss- to irrs-uc, with NIV sections understaffed,
particularly during seasonal rushes, there is an
incentive to issue to questionable or borderline
applicants based on paperwork which is easy to forge and
which verification is labor intensive and often just not
practical with current staffing.)
 j /
/ .'V <-',
Issuing on documents - salary and time in-residence
DOCUMENTS ARE ^WORTH THE PAPER THEY ARE WRITTEN ON
Has not helped moral - FSNs feel they and their
expertise not as relevant
Miss the opportunity to recognize applicants face to
face/fraud/new passports

MOST IMPORTANTLY, whereas Visa Express as it was originally

implemented enhanced mission security, the new system is
not value added. When Visa Express began/all TCNs who ha^
not traveled appeared at the^consulate for an interview^
\$/ith Saudi applicants absent wait inside and outside L.jc< ^
significantly reduced. Now, these applicants submit their
passports, pay an additional fee even though it is quite
likely they will be refused. Then the consular officer
reviews their case and 221g asked for an interview,
returned to the travel agent the next day, then travel
agent returns to applicant, applicant come to the__coasulai*
and is interviewed and approved or refused. I'f approved it
takes another ,d_ay for visa - adds several days for the
applicant^'fetfe- Except for the few that the officer feeli" can '\^D
issue on documentation alone,»us"aTfie foot traffic as would
have been if they saved their time and money and came
directly to the consulate

This consular officers workload has almost doubled, leaving

less time for congressional responses, fraud prevention,
consular management in general.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR FRAUD

low fraud post

worth the risk

. . \ remote data entry - impossible to check everything,

.KVT ^(v^1* reports of selling additional years of validity
\P" r .^\iA'J' - overcharging of customers reported / but we can drop this
(x\L> v particular company if it continues