The U.S. Embassy has done away with the time-consuming visa application process, where applicants waited in long lines for hours for an interview.
Beginning February 22nd , a more modernised approach will be in place, allowing all potential non-immigrant visa applicants to schedule an interview ahead of time.
The service is based on similar models operating today in more than 20 countries across Europe, Latin America and Asia, according to Embassy officials.
“We believe that the experience of processing many of these applications will be much more dignified and orderly. Once we introduce this new system, applicants will know in advance exactly when they need to come to the Embassy for their interview and there will be no need to arrive in the middle of the night – hours and hours before the Embassy even opens,” Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy, Dr. Brent Hardt explained.
“Applicants would be able to pick the time during interview hours that works best for them. But scheduling in advance will give each applicant the flexibility to select their own time.”
Chief Counsel in the Visa Section, Abdelnoir Zaiback, explained that the new process would involve purchasing an eight-minute “scratch card” from a local distribution centre at a cost of $14, pushing the cost of a new visa to at least $114 for a maximum 10-year period.
According to Dr. Hardt, based on informal interviews, the vast majority of people were strongly in favour of the additional cost for the additional service.
Officials say as many as five persons of the same family can be scheduled for an interview using one card.
However, it is possible that an applicant may need more than one scratch card, depending on how long the initial process takes.
Mr. Zaiback explained that once an applicant begins booking an appointment, the phone call would not be discontinued if the eight minutes were to expire.
At the distribution centre, the visa applicant will also receive instructions on how to place the call using a PIN (Personal Identification Number).
A list of PIN distribution centres is available at www.usvisascratchcards.info.
Applicants are to call the Visa Information Service at 1-800-763-6812 (or 1-877-709-1892 from the Turks & Caicos Islands), enter their PIN and speak to operators who will provide information on the visa application process and its requirements.
“Once they come here, we only ask that they come about 10 minutes before the scheduled interview time. They would be promptly processed to come into our waiting room and hopefully they will be out between 45 minutes and an hour-. We expect to have between 120 and 200 [applicants] being processed at one time, but this does depend on our resources,” Dr. Hardt said.
Officials have explained that those hoping to use credit cards – Visa or Mastercard – may do so in place of the scratch card.
“This new process will be especially useful for applicants from the Family Islands and the Turks & Caicos Islands, considering that right now these people have to travel to Nassau – sometimes having to overnight – without knowing when they would be able to get in. But that will not be the case anymore,” Dr. Hardt said.
“And so this will be a vast improvement for The Bahamas, greatly enhancing the service we provide to you.”
The new visa system will work in conjunction with the government’s continued efforts to introduce machine-readable passports, a system the government had hoped to be in place by June.
But Foreign Affairs Minister, Fred Mitchell, recently told The Bahama Journal that while the report is in from the Tenders Commission, the issue still has to be considered by Cabinet.
The machine-readable passports are a key step to meeting International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) global objectives designed to minimise delays in border crossing formalities and to safeguard international civil aviation operation against acts of unlawful interference.
The U.S Department of State has said the passports are expected to help deter fraud and quickly confirm a passport holder’s identity, as they would be that much more difficult to forge.
A machine-readable passport has certain biographical data entered on its data page.
By: Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
