Press Conference of Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Maura Harty

Beijing, China
March 2, 2005

Posted on Mar 3, 2005

MAURA HARTY: Listen, thanks very much for coming, especially late in the afternoon. I am really delighted to be here and I thank the embassy for giving me a chance to chat with you for a few minutes and try and have some sense of what you might be interested in and try and, in fact, demystify some things if I might.

The major purpose of my trip to China -- I spent the last several days in country, in Guangzhou, then in Shanghai and now in Beijing. The major purpose is to do a little bit of a conversation in each city with business interests, as well as with academic interests and certainly the government, to underscore the efforts that we have made in the post-September 11th world to ensure that America continues to be and is once again seen to be the open and welcome society that we have always been.

I don't think it's a mystery to anybody or a secret to anybody that in the immediate aftermath of the September 11th tragedies, the United States necessarily put into place a number of new procedures with respect to the American visa policy. That at least when originally implemented resulted in inefficiencies that in many countries and in many part of the world seems to indicate that there was a big Do No Enter sign on my country.

I came into the job and have had the privilege of being the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs since November of 2002, which was just about the low point of our ability to efficiently process visa applicants and applications from all over the world. In the immediate aftermath of the September 11th attacks, we saw visa demand plummet about 40 percent worldwide. And China was no exception to that. An awful lot of people decided they were going to go somewhere else. So by November of 2002, we clearly had our work cut out for us to do two things simultaneously: And those two things were to ensure that we struck the appropriate balance between secure borders, providing for the security of our nation so that we would be certain that for American citizens as well as for travelers, tourists, students, people coming for medical reasons or any other reason, that everyone in America, American citizens or not, would have a safe and secure environment in which to do what they wanted to do.

Point number two, that we would balance that need to provide security with the need to be true to what we were as a nation. That need, in fact, acknowledging that America is an immigrant nation. That very few Americans don't have some kind of immigrant experience in their background. That, in fact, we are a nation of nations and that the strength of our society has come -- always has come from welcoming energetic, creative, broad-thinking people from all over the world. As a native New Yorker, I grew up certainly with the notion of our -- my city and our nation as a melting pot, taking the best from as many places in the world as we could. I still believe that and I will always believe that it is critically important for us to welcome foreign visitors, business travelers, students, scientists, in every category. Visitors to the United States. And naturally to continue to allow people to immigrate as we always have.

So I just came from -- and I wish you all had been able to be with me -- I just came from a university where I gave a talk and had a great exchange of questions and answers with students. Some of the things that we've done over the past several years since November 2002 have been aimed at making sure that students and business travelers essentially go to the front of the line, that students who are so important to us as in people-to-people exchanges, in continuing to make sure that our nations understand each other, that students find it as easy as possible to apply for visas, in fact, and get those visas.

With special respect to students, I regard allowing foreign students into the United States as a national security issue. What I mean by that is if young people from other countries do not come to the United States, then we have a national security issue. That is if a foreign student chooses to go somewhere else rather than to America for their overseas academic experience, I have lost the opportunity. My nation has lost the opportunity to get them at a young age when they are interested, when they are eager, when they are creative and broad thinking. I'd rather see young people come to an American university campus and experience with their own eyes what America is like and what it is about, rather than make their -- form their opinions about America through the prism of even the best article that a journalist writes about America. Seeing, feeling, tasting, experiencing, making friends is a far, far better way for somebody to form an opinion rather than an academic experience of merely reading about it in a textbook.

So for the past several years, we have streamlined our procedures and we have now begun a massive public diplomacy campaign, I understand, that just recently -- you, as well, just did a speech and I'm certain that the ambassador, very, very regularly, speaks about the same subject. America is open for travel. America welcomes travelers to the United States. And we want to make sure that everyone, both American citizens and travelers in any kind of visa category, have a safe and secure visit to the United States and that the visa process is as efficient as it possibly can be.

That's really the purpose of the trip. I am happy to try and answer some of your questions and go into sort of greater detail on anything about it. So why don't we go ahead and turn it over to questions? Yes.

QUESTION: As you probably know last year there was quite a bit of tension that stemmed from your fingerprint requirements between China and the U.S. Would you consider this kind of a Band-Aid PR tour and how have the reactions been so far and what is it -- what stage is it at right now? Are things better? And I just have another quick figure question. What are the statistics for non-immigrant visas that the U.S. issues every year to Chinese people? Thanks.

MAURA HARTY: Okay. Thanks for asking the questions, particularly reference to the fingerprinting. I think it's really important for your readership to understand that the fingerprint requirement is not exclusive to China. It is, in fact, the entire world. And while I do note that in some quarters there was limited enthusiasm for that new effort, I would also note that any number of nations are, in fact, beginning to introduce biometrics into their visa programs, into their passports, even. And that one of the things that biometrics do provide that is so very important is that they, in fact, match the traveler up with the travel document. So that an immigration inspector in America or anywhere else seeing a biometric passport can know that the person standing in front of them is truly the person to whom that visa or that document was issued.

Now, there's a lot of pressure to come to the United States, and for many quarters of the world, China included, there is often an element of fraud, as people substitute photographs, as people impersonate other folks. Biometrics gets around that. Tell you what. If you go back to my original notion that, you know, several thousand Americans died on September 11th and citizens from 90 other countries also died that day in New York and Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. We owe everyone a safe and secure environment. I regret very, very much that anybody in China felt offended or put off by that requirement. I would invite you, if you haven't done it yourself, to come to the embassy and see it. It takes less than 30 seconds. There is no ink. There is -- it's a great and efficient process. And in fact, it does wind up speeding through the port of entry the person who has, in fact, a biometric feature in their visa. So we continue to try and reach out to people who are concerned about that.

But tell you what, I've gone around a world and a number of places, demonstrated it myself, as our ambassador did in Russia, I did in India, as we were rolling it out. And as I did it in front of an Indian audience takes seconds. So I had to do it several times because they missed it the first couple of times. Here's all it is. One of the journalists said -- and it got picked up by everybody's microphone and tape recorder -- "Oh, that's what I do. That's what I did to get my driver's license." That's it. It's not really as -- anywhere near the intrusive feature that I think some people fear it is. And I think that again and again and again you can see in a waiting room people surprised that it's just not that big a deal once it happens.

Do I regard my trip as a Band-Aid? If a Band-Aid is a good thing then I regard myself as a whole big, you know, pile of Band-Aids. Because if you take that to be a good thing, what I want you to take away from this is, Look, we're concerned if people think that the biometric or any other part of this equation is meant to deter people. I'm very proud of the way we have turned things around. So I don't think it's a Band-Aid and neither is it a triumphal tour. It is an effort to set the record straight. It is an effort to show people that -- and to say to people, frankly, try us, you'll like us. Yeah. 2002, not so very good. 2003, 2004 and now 5, better and better and better. Certain name checks that two years ago took months to get done are being done now in two weeks or less. Scientific related name checks that last year were taking 73 days are now taking 14 or less. The metrics are there. And I'm pleased to note that people are beginning to come back. That there is a resurgence of applicants in China. But I don't think I can, off the top of my head, quote the numbers.

OFFICIAL 1: At the rate that we are issuing these now it is about 250,000 a year.

QUESTION: 250,000 non-immigrant visas?

OFFICIAL 1: Yes, China-wide.

MAURA HARTY: I spent about three hours today in a very frank conversation with my counterpart. In fact, I even invited him to the States to continue our conversations. I think that we both made our respective views known. I welcome him to come and look at the process and to come visit to continue to talk about it. A quarter of a million Chinese applicants are coming through that system. So I'd say that would say that a quarter of a million people are voting with their feet on that one. And I welcome more. I welcome as many as possibly want to come. Yes? Hi.

QUESTION: First about Chinese students, there are two issues. One is, whatever happened with the changes after 2001? The other is the broader issue, what exactly are the requirements and what are the rules regarding students getting visas? The biggest complaint that I've heard is the way the system is set up, the visa officer has to assume that an applicant is actually intending to immigrate and has to disprove that assumption. And I've seen and heard cases of a lot of kids, smart kids, who have been offered full scholarships in the States getting turned away because they're young kids and maybe don't -- you know, aren't married, don't have a car, don't have a house. This whole issue. Are you giving any thought to that? Have there been any changes? Is it possible? Are they contemplating changes or is this an issue -- I mean, do you understand what I'm saying or --

MAURA HARTY: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do I --

QUESTION: What's the view -- what's the U.S. view on that? I can ask (unintelligible) the other question was, I'm curious about Chinese tourists.

MAURA HARTY: That's a heck of a one question. Okay. Yeah. But I'm sorry. Your second question?

QUESTION: I'm curious about Chinese tourists as well. My understanding is that it's pretty tough if not impossible for a Chinese person to get an individual tourist visa to the States.

MAURA HARTY: Okay.

QUESTION: And is that, you know -- when is that going to change? Because that's big business for the U.S.

MAURA HARTY: Yeah. Do I accept your premises? No, in a word. But I'm happy to give you a little bit more information. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by whatever happened after 2001, but let me go to what I think was the heart of question one, and that is the section of the law called -- catchy name -- Section 214-B. The Immigration and Nationality Act of the United States of America was written in 1952 and has been amended many times since then. An original portion of that law, Section 214-B, by being an original portion of that law, is not a change introduced after September 11th. It's, in fact, part of the law since before my parents met each other. Okay?

Many other changes did take place but 214-B does essentially say, and has since the law was written, pre-- well pre-2001 -- that the consular officer is to assume that every person who applies for any type of non-immigrant visa -- not merely students -- must be assumed to be intending to immigrate to the United States until they can overcome that presumption by demonstrating that they have a residence abroad they have no intention of abandoning. That is that they're going to return back to their residence abroad.

We are very concerned about the application of that law with respect to students, because what do we know about students? We know that are not necessarily as well established as you are in your professions. We know that students don't have some of the things that this gentleman just elaborated. No, I don't expect a student to have spouse, kids, house, job, favorite dog, whatever the thing might be, that ties us to the place that we call home. What I do expect a student to be able to do, you know, what I've instructed all officers who do consular work all around the world, is to, in fact, be able to extract from that student an articulate vision of what it is they intend to do in the United States. There's a huge difference between a student who comes in and says, I'm going to go to Dartmouth for the next four years. I'm going to study biochemistry and I'm going to come back to China and I'm going to do X, Y and Z, and a student who says, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do but I'm going to go to the Easy Method Language School on 123rd Street. I'm not sure in what city. And then try and figure out next what to do with my life. There's a little bit of a difference in a student who really can demonstrate for us where their academic experience in America fits into their broader life plan.

Okay? So we have absolutely asked our officers to make a differentiation between a businessperson well established, my age, who hopefully has a very different metric for what they bring to the conversation about a visa. I don't know about kids being turned away who have full scholarships to America. It's very hard to answer something like that. It's an anecdote without any specificity to it and I'd like to believe that's not the case. But I can't really speak to that without knowing more about a specific case.

With respect to your second question about Chinese tourists, more of them get them than don't. And I'd like even more of them to get them. Now, one of the things I'd like to ask you to do is take a look at -- or ask your readership to take a look at our website travel.state.gov. You can click on China. You'll get hot links to this embassy's website. And the reason I'd like to ask you to do that is because I think an informed visa applicant is generally going to be a more successful visa applicant. That there is so much urban legend, even in some of the ways you've asked the questions already today.

There's so much urban legend, misunderstanding about the process and what occurs in that process that people feel that they need to misrepresent. People feel like they need to overreach when, in fact, if they simply told us exactly what they're about, it number one, not only has the virtue of being the truth, but it comes across as more sincere. And people are able to articulate who it is, what they do, why they want to go, what they're going to do when they come home. And so an informed applicant is a better applicant. So looking at that website, travel.state.gov, then click on China and you will see some real good information with respect to what happens at a visa interview and what an applicant might reasonably expect to happen. And then they can prepare themselves a little bit better for those interviews.

Look, we have a 93 and a half billion dollar travel and tourism industry. One out of every eight civilian adults employed in the United States is employed by some part of the travel and tourism industry. You've got to believe I want tourists. We have a 13 billion dollar student industry. And in addition to all of the good things that intend to exchange between our two nations, 13 billion dollars is also a lot of money. You've got to believe, for every good reason, I want students in the United States. And so to the degree that a talk like this, an opportunity with you'll, a talk at the university, can in fact inspire people to take a look at the information out there or to take a look at the difference between 2005 and 2002, I'm really happy to be here to answer your questions and try and inspire people to realize that, yeah, it wasn't so good in 2002. It was terrible. It's exponentially better now. America's welcome mat is out. And we, two great nations, both prosper when we share with each other an exchange of ideas and an exchange of cultures, be those exchanges in the academic community, in the scientific community, in the business community. You've got a great and interesting country and so do we. And we very much like to inspire Chinese to come and visit the United States in any capacity.

QUESTION: I'm with CBS News.

MAURA HARTY: Hi.

QUESTION: Does the United States plan at any point to seek approved destination status (ADS) from China? And if not, can you outline any plans you might have to encourage more tourists, more Chinese tourists, to apply for visas?

MAURA HARTY: The ADS is certainly a conversation that we can have with the government of China if they want to. But I've got to tell you right now, we encourage Chinese -- individual Chinese travelers to travel to the United States. We want to see more of them. We saw a quarter million last year. We want them. I don't particularly feel that ADS should stand in -- that the existence of an ADS agreement or not should stand in the way of our encouraging Chinese -- private Chinese citizens to come to the United States at any moment. I'm flying home tomorrow from Beijing to San Francisco. I hope that planeload is full of students and visitors and businesspeople looking for a variety of positive experiences in the United States. So you know, that's really where I stand on that. Let's not wait for any kind of agreement. Let's just get out there and get on the road and come see America. There's a vibrant exchange in the business community. And I've visited with chambers of commerce in other parts of this country and I'll do that tomorrow here, as well. I think that there is an awful big push. I think that that travel sort of feeds on itself. The more people who come, the more people do come. And I just -- I'd encourage Chinese -- I'm here right now encouraging Chinese in any category and every category to come out to the United States.

QUESTION: I'm from Chinese Central Television. So how different will 2005 be from 2002 in terms of Chinese students, the reach of Chinese students getting visa, and the number of Chinese students going to America?

MAURA HARTY: Well, it starts with the Chinese students applying. I tried my best today to talk a number of them into it. Right now -- last year, even -- the number -- the percentage of Chinese students who receive visas was higher than year before. That's a trend. I'd like to help sort of see a trend there and see that continue. But we don't have as many Chinese students applying as applied several years ago. I need them to come back. I need to say what I've already said, try us, you'll like us. The more Chinese students who apply, I think, the more that you will see going to the United States. Right now there are over 60,000 Chinese students in the United States. Right? That is the -- they're second only to India. Only India sends more students to the United States than China does.

I encourage a healthy competition here. I'd like to see a bunch more Chinese students apply for and go to the United States. They will see that our procedures are much more efficient than they were several years ago. If youngsters now have older brothers and sisters who decided not to study in the States, I encourage them to go ahead and not base their decisions on what their older siblings might have experienced two or three years ago and to give us a try again. It's a much quicker process. It's a very transparent process. On our website you can also see the waiting times for how long it might take to get an appointment for a visa. And one of the things students in particular will see is that there really is virtually no wait time. I do not want a student to miss the first day of school because they couldn't get a visa interview in time.

Having said that, I encourage students to not wait till the day before classes begin to apply for a visa. But I do encourage them to let us know just as soon as they've been accepted to an American school so we can get them in there and get them on their way.

QUESTION: You said in your speech earlier today that you've managed to negotiate with the Chinese Government to lengthen the validity of visas for tourists and business travelers.

MAURA HARTY: Uh-huh.

QUESTION: From six months to one year.

MAURA HARTY: Uh-huh.

QUESTION: Has that taken effect?

MAURA HARTY: Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely.

QUESTION: And when did you come up with that agreement?

MAURA HARTY: January 15th. That's when it took effect. It -- we've been working on it for quite some time. Our systems are different. Validity of visas is a concept that's based on reciprocity. We will give to another nation's nationals what they will give to our nationals. So it was a little bit of a negotiation. But you know what? I'd like it to be longer. And I hope that we will continue the conversation and allow that to extend at some point. With respect to students, it is not yet there. I would like to student -- the validity of a student visa to be longer, as well. Chinese system, quite different from our own, and we have a little work to do there. But the good news is, we're going to continue talking about it. Because I'd like to make it as efficient, as transparent and as sensible as possible.

QUESTION: Will the Chinese give Americans the same kind of visa?

MAURA HARTY: Well, it is reciprocal. So that -- in the case of the business and tourist travel, they are giving to American citizens -- they are -- by the reciprocal nature of the agreement, we are to give to Chinese citizens in the tourist and business category one year multiple entry visas and the Government of China has agreed to give the same thing to an American coming, as well.

QUESTION: It is reported that the Chinese students who went to America to study last year is much less than the number of the year before. So -- and you have taken many new measures to change the situation. But are you confident that the new measures are good enough to promote the number, to reach the level -- the number before 9/11?

MAURA HARTY: Thank you for the question. Am I confident? I tell you, I am confident that what I've said is true. That the systems in place are dramatically better than they were. That students who try us now will find that to be the case. I am confident that America is open and welcoming and wants to see new students come. I am confident that American universities are working harder to attract Chinese students to the United States. But it does take two to tango and so we need the Chinese students to give it a try and to apply. And then to find out for themselves how much better the systems are than they were just a few years ago. And that's, in fact, part of our public diplomacy effort, is to make sure the people understand things have changed. You know, we have an expression in the United States that, Bad news gets up and runs around the world seven times before good news gets up and has breakfast.

I'm full of good news right now but I'm trying to catch up to bad news that's been running around the last several years. So actually, I appreciate your being here today so you can tell a little bit of that story for us so that Chinese students can understand we value their attendance at American schools. We want them to come. Our systems are better. And the other thing I'm confident about is that I'm not done yet. That we will continue to try and be creative. We will continue to look at our systems. We will continue to be open minded and to try and ensure that we have the best and most efficient systems out there that we can possibly have. Your follow-up and then that it's.

QUESTION: About ADS, which is the key for Chinese tourism?

MAURA HARTY: Well, you know, a Chinese tourist can come right now if it wants to. What's to stop him? We're not prohibiting -- we are not in any way, shape or form attempting to prohibit Chinese tourists from coming to America. We say right now come.

QUESTION: ADS is strictly seen as a Chinese concept then?

MAURA HARTY: Yes. Is a Chinese concept. It's not an American concept.

QUESTION: Right. Okay. So it's just up to them to decide to do enact ADS.

MAURA HARTY: You know, in fact, I have to admit that we did not discuss ADS today at our quite lengthy meeting so the Government of China did not raise that with us. I flat out am interested, without intermediaries, in encouraging the travel by the Chinese citizens in any capacity to the United States.

MAURA HARTY: Thank you all very much.