You may not realize that the visa process for international travelers to visit the U.S. is extremely complicated. For example for someone from Brazil or China to visit the U.S., it is a 12 step process, and that is only if it is approved. The perspective travelers would first need to assemble the needed application and photo, pay a $140 fee directly to designated branches in their country, purchase a pre-paid pin card from the bank or online, use PIN to schedule interview or appointment, wait 2 to 100 days for an interview, attend a visa interview at the consulate, wait in line to be interviewed, go through an application review, fingerprints are collected and name check performed and the list goes on. I am sure you get the point by now. If it took this much time for us to be able to visit Europe, I certainly woudn’t go through the hassle.
That being said we certainly don’t want a faster process risking our saftey by letting in someone with ill intensions, but there still has to be a more effecient way. With a reformed visa process, international travel to our country would increase. The U.S. Travel Association estimates the industry would create 1.3 million new U.S. jobs and add $859 billion to the economy by 2020. The heart of U.S. Travel’s plan is to increase staffing, reduce visa interview wait times and expand the Visa Waiver Program. This could be accomplished with little to no cost to taxpayers.
By failing to keep pace with the growth in global long-haul international travel between 2000 and 2010, the United States lost the opportunity to welcome 78 million more visitors and generate $606 billion in direct and downstream spending – enough to support more than 467,000 additional U.S. jobs annually over these years.
U.S. Travel’s report, “Ready for Takeoff: A Plan to Create 1.3 Million U.S. Jobs by Welcoming Millions of International Travelers,” is the first comprehensive review of the negative impact that inefficient and unpredictable U.S. visitor visa and entry processes have on U.S. jobs, economic growth and exports. The report documents that travel is America’s largest industry export sector, and the easiest export sector to expand, since the barriers to increased international visitation to the United States are largely self-imposed.
The report’s comprehensive, four-step plan will help the United States achieve its goal of becoming more competitive in the global travel market, which in turn will expand U.S. exports, create new jobs and drive economic growth. The report recommends:
- America must align U.S. State Department resources with market demands;
- America must reduce visa interview wait times to 10 days or fewer;
- The U.S. State Department must improve planning, measurement and transparency; and
- America must expand the Visa Waiver Program.
The U.S. Travel Association is the national, non-profit organization representing all components of the travel industry that generates $1.8 trillion in economic output and supports 14.1 million jobs. U.S. Travel’s mission is to increase travel to and within the United States.
