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发帖数: 17544 | 1 http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2012/01/entering-americ
ON THURSDAY, the White House announced that President Barack Obama had
signed a new executive order aimed at promoting travel to America by easing
the visa process and reducing paperwork. This is good news. Gulliver has
written before about the need for visa reform, which is a really simple,
largely non-controversial way that America could boost its economy.
Unfortunately, Congress, sclerotic and divided as usual, was unable to act—
and Mr Obama had to do what he could on his own.
Mr Obama's executive order will reduce visa waiting times for Chinese and
Brazilian travellers, move towards eliminating visas entirely for visitors
from Taiwan, and take the Global Entry programme, which speeds pre-screened
travellers through customs, out of the trial phase and make it permanent.
Easing visa requirements for travellers from Brazil and China was one of the
major planks of the US Travel Association's "Ready for Takeoff" visa reform
campaign, so this should be counted as a victory for the trade group, which
represents a wide swathe of businesses that benefit from tourism. The group
posted a swoony press release on its website praising the White House move.
"The steps the president took today are significant and will boost travel
to and within the United States," said Roger Dow, the group's president. "
His timing could not be better."
But there's still a lot more that could be done on visa reform, and some of
it can only be done by Congress. The big thing, of course, is hiring more
people to process visas. The administration has called for a 40% increase in
capacity on that front, but realistically, that will either require more
funding or shifting money from some other priority. It seems unlikely that
Congress will act to spend even the smallest amount of new money on
something like this during an election year. Mr Obama also wants 80% of non-
immigrant visa applicants interviewed "within three weeks of application".
That's a great goal, but don't be surprised if the State Department and
Department of Homeland Security fall short. The president is a powerful man,
but even he cannot fix America's slow, clunky visa system with a wave of
his hand. That will take money—and more money for visa processing and
visitor screening just isn't on the cards right now. |
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