Security Relations

[Korean-language demonstration of the Web service.]

Question and Answer Session

QUESTION: I am reporter Kwon Kyung Bok from Chosun Ilbo, sir. I just want to have you clarify the exact ages. During your presentation, you said that people who will be waived visa interviews have to be under 14 years of age and at 80 years of age or above. But in the Korean language, they used the word ‘iha’ and ‘iha’ includes age 14. So, when you say under 14, you mean to say 13 and under, correct?

BERNARD ALTER: Yes, and we apologize for that. I’m glad that somebody caught it. Thank you. It’s before their fourteenth birthday. This is the same issue that caused some confusion the last time so I’m glad that we clarified it in the beginning.

QUESTION: I am reporter Cho Seung Woo from YTN. As a result of the personal appearance waiver program being eliminated, I believe the number of applicants who have to go through a visa interview will almost double in the future. So what kind of ways or tools do you have in place to expedite the process of the visa interviews and visa processing itself?

BERNARD ALTER: The Web-based service you see here is perhaps the most visible. When we do move to finger scanning, this will be very very important because it will allow us to load the data on an applicant before they actually come to the window. That will speed our ability to use that data and to take a picture and to finger scan.

What has also been going on in terms of the Embassy infrastructure, which let me at this point make a pitch for a new Chancery again because we don’t have sufficient space to interview all the applicants we need to. What we’ve done with the infrastructure is, right now, create new windows down in the intake area, on the first floor, which used to be just the waiting room. We now do our data intake downstairs, which allowed us to create three more interview windows. Then we played with the windows that we already had to the point now that, instead of only having nine windows to interview at, we have thirteen. We’re also in the process of getting new American officers and hiring new FSNs. I’m sorry. Korean employees. I apologize for the acronym.

Now, what you have to realize though is no government that I have encountered, whether it’s ours or anyone else’s, works fast. So these changes and revisions and additions have been ongoing since three or four months ago. We’ll finally be finished probably in December when we finish some additional construction in the downstairs waiting room which will give us two more windows to do the intake of data at. So, were you to come to us, say in January, you would see a system where there are seven windows for people to line up at to have their data inputted and 13 windows to be interviewed at upstairs with sufficient personnel to interview and then to do the back office material.

Let me also add that one of the problems we often face, and this slows our ability to process, is the significant number of people who make an appointment and don’t show up. We’ve been running appointments for the past year and there is a 20% no show rate. One out of five people who tell us they’re coming don’t come. What this means is that people who do intend to travel and really want to apply have to wait 20% longer than they might otherwise. This does complicate our ability to process quickly and efficiently. So, I would urge people to apply in advance when they’re ready to travel but also to please, if you decide not to travel, to cancel the appointment and give that space to somebody else who may be very interested and need to travel.

QUESTION: Reporter Kwon Jae Min from KBS. During your presentation you talked about how the number of people who will be waived visa interviews will be reduced. So, can you please explain specifically what kinds of changes have been made in that area? You also pointed out that the U.S. Embassy Consular section is exerting efforts to expedite the visa process. So, if you could also elaborate on specifically how much more time would be needed for a Korean applicant to get an American visa.

BERNARD ALTER: I’m sorry could you also repeat the first part of the question?

QUESTION: Specifically, what kind of changes have been made in terms of the people who do not need to appear at the Embassy for an interview?

BERNARD ALTER: Those people who do not need to appear will follow the same procedures that they’ve done before, which is generally to mail those in to us and then we process them. Again, these will primarily be officials, either the Korean central government or members of foreign missions here, and they already do that. Also, it will be children of the age we agreed on and adults above the higher age and, they too, in fact, are already sending those things in. The only addition I would want to emphasize for children is that the parents themselves need to have had visas earlier before that child can actually send something in.

QUESTION: What I mean by my question is the people who used to not need interviews previously and those who do not need interviews now, are they different categories?

BERNARD ALTER: Depends on how far back in time you want to go. Let’s go back to the time before anything changed. At that point, we were able to waive interviews for people using travel agencies that had been registered with us and for whom we would regularly check in terms of their bone fides and whether people use the visas appropriately. We also had a referral program involving the most prestigious universities in Korea, and students and faculty from those universities could travel as tourists and students could apply for student visas. Then we had a business program for registered companies who travel regularly to the United States. Those were pretty much the individuals who were exempted from an interview.

Now, the sheer size of the number of Koreans who travel are close to 700,000 a year to the United States; the fact that you’re our seventh largest trading partner means business travel is important; and the fact that you’re the third largest group of foreign students in the United States, meant that we were able to get some temporary exemptions from the imposition of those stricter requirements, which began actually in the spring of 2003. They allowed us to continue with certain programs and those were the business program, and the university program but not for student visas, just for tourist travel. The travel agent program, however, was eliminated.

QUESTION: So, starting from the spring of 2003, you introduced new programs for business referrals and …

BERNARD ALTER: No, starting from the spring of 2003, we began to cut back on the number of people who were exempted from the interview waiver. I’m sorry, one more thing. This was not something we wanted to do. This was something that was happening worldwide. It was not specific to Korea. It was happening everywhere at every U.S. diplomatic post in the world. Now, effective Monday, August 2, the U.S. Embassy in Seoul will join the rest of the U.S. Embassies in other diplomatic posts in that virtually everyone except for the exempt categories I mentioned will have to come for an interview in order to apply for a U.S. non-immigrant visa. I think the other question had to do with more time?

QUESTION: How much more time do you think will be needed with these changes taking place?

BERNARD ALTER: This is the balance. This is why the Web service is so important to us. When finger scanning starts, that’s an extra thing we have to do. And we’re trying to find ways then to make other parts like data entry faster. This system will allow us to electronically download the data we usually have to input ourselves.

In addition, we’re increasing the number of people who do interviews and we’re increasing the number of windows at which the data intake occurs. All that we hope will allow us to continue operating at about the number of interviews we’ve been able to do so far.

We have, at our highest level, scheduled approximately 1,500 appointments a day. Our goal is to be able to continue doing that despite the addition of finger scanning and the other requirements. I hope I answered both of those questions.

QUESTION: Reporter Kim Seung Yun from Dong-a Ilbo. I have four questions for you. Number one, if you could further elaborate on the point that you just made, sir. For instance, if you can specify, for instance, it took how many days on average for a person to get this type of visa but with the Internet service and fingerprinting, you estimate the time to expand to how much or reduce to how much?

BERNARD ALTER: Should we do this one at a time? Internally, we have a goal of turning around the visa application in five days. From the time it arrives, however it arrives, either in person or by mail, to have it sent out within five days. Sometimes, most of the time, we meet that. I can’t honestly say we always do but that’s the goal we strive for and that’s the goal we’ll continue to strive for.

I was reminded to say five business days.

QUESTION: Secondly, the fee stands at 12,000 won. How much did you used to charge previously?

BERNARD ALTER: Depended on how often and for how long you had to get on the telephone service. Our understanding is that it would take anywhere between eight to ten minutes to do anything on that phone service. On top of that, if you wanted to cancel or change, you had to go back and pay again. This will allow you to do all that just for that first fee.

Now, one thing I didn’t mention that may have been mentioned in the Korean is that the PIN number that you get will be good for 90 days, if you don’t use it. As long as you use it, it will continue to be good up until two business days before the appointment. But if you go in and never use it, it will expire in 90 days.

Question number three.

QUESTION: You mentioned that the no-show rate stands at 20% for Korean applicants. Can you compare this percentage with applicants of other countries? No-show rates?

BERNARD ALTER: No show rates? I’m afraid not. Those are not statistics that are part of a database. We just see them because we scratch our heads when fewer people show up than we thought. I’ve been told by my deputy that, in his experience, that’s high.

QUESTION: Last question, you mentioned that Korea is the first country to introduce and test this new Internet-based visa information and appointment system. Do you mean to say no other country is using this system and, if so, when do other countries plan to join?

BERNARD ALTER: There are countries that have strictly appointment systems that you can access on the Web. India has it. I believe Hong Kong has it. There may be one or two others. What we’re trying to do here that, as far as I know, has not been tried elsewhere are two things: One, combine the application information with the making of the appointment; and the ability to download the data that goes into making the appointment into our normal data system. Those two things, as far as I’m aware of, have not been tried using a Web system before.

QUESTION: So, India and Hong Kong are using Internet appointment systems?

BERNARD ALTER: They’re using a strictly appointment system that does nothing else but allow you to get on and make an appointment.

QUESTION: I’m a reporter (Lee Chin Dong) from Yonhap News. I have two questions for you, sir. You mentioned the flat fee of 12,000 won. I believe that this Internet service has been introduced mainly for the convenience of the U.S. Embassy prior to introducing the fingerprinting system. So why is it that you are imposing this fee on Korean applicants and specifically how did you come up with this number?

BERNARD ALTER: I think there are mutual benefits here. In the past, if you used the telephone system, you were perhaps told what might be filled but you couldn’t necessarily see much further ahead than that. This will allow you to look. Say you’re in London, you decide that you’re going to be back in Seoul in two months having finished your assignment, and you’re going to need to apply for a visa. Well, in London, you’ll be able to get on anytime you want and look further ahead to when you’re back in Seoul in two months and pick a day when you’d like to be able to apply and also pick a time. Under the telephone-based system, if you wanted to change that, you’d have to go back in.

I’ve heard from some people that they got telephone/tennis elbow holding onto that phone waiting until it was less busy and they could make their appointments. This will be instantaneous, or at least as instantaneous as a Web system can be. So I think there are mutual benefits here.

Now, like our current user pay a private contractor runs system that is not run by the U.S. government and that. We don’t have the ability or the resources to manage something like that. So in the same way, this Web-based system is not run by the U.S. Embassy. It is run by a private contractor, Teletech Government Services. Like the auto-pay system, they charge in order to get back the cost of designing the system, employing people to manage the system and, like a private company, a profit; but, in the process, they deliver a good product. They’re willing to make the changes that need to be made and they just have the resources that we at the U.S. Embassy wouldn’t have. This is the way we can deliver a product.

Now in determining the 12,000-won fee, we looked at the average time people are on the phone and then the cost of designing the system is higher. It requires a lot more from a company than an auto-pay system. So we negotiated and decided that 12,000-won flat fee would work. Let me add here that the alternative is almost too horrendous to consider. With 1,500 people a day trying to come to us, the alternative would be to have 1,500 people or more line up every morning and first-come-first-serve and so, when faced with that alternative, I think this is the best solution.

QUESTION: I think the U.S. government should pay… (inaudible)

BERNARD ALTER: Yeah, it is a difference of opinion. That’s fine.

QUESTION: The second question was, Korean applicants living out of Seoul often have to get a day off for a vacation in order to come all the way to the U.S. Embassy in Seoul for a visa interview, so is it realistically not possible to setup any facilities in the provincial areas of Korea for your consular services?

BERNARD ALTER: I wish it was, but it’s not. I would enjoy serving in cities other than Seoul to see more of Korea, but setting up posts is very expensive because of security issues and personnel issues. So, unfortunately, it is only the Embassy in Seoul where you will continue to be able to apply for a visa.

QUESTION: I’m reporter Lee Joo Min from NGO Times. My question for you is, is there any other biometric information other than fingerprints that you’ll require for Korean visa applicants and are these requirements applied to every American Embassy throughout the world?

BERNARD ALTER: Any applicant who must apply for a visa to do what he or she wants to do in the United States, as of October 24, 2004, will have to be fingerprinted. Those individuals who don’t need a visa, like Japan and European countries, will be fingerprinted at the port of entry. So, in that way, everyone seeking to enter the United States will be finger scanned.

QUESTION: And any other biometric information other than fingerprints?

BERNARD ALTER: Depending on your definition of biometric information: the photograph. That date is a statutory date. It was a part of the laws passed by Congress. It was not something we came up with.

QUESTION: Every American Embassy throughout the world, not only the one in Korea, will be subject to these finger scanning and biometric data input?

BERNARD ALTER: Yes.

QUESTION: When you say photograph, do you mean photograph of the face?

BERNARD ALTER: Yes. The photograph that’s already on the application and that’s been part of the process since the beginning.

QUESTION: Reporter Kim Ji Bang from Kukmin Ilbo. Two questions for you, sir. With regard to finger scanning: first of all, I would like to ask exactly at which point finger scanning takes place. Does every applicant have to go through finger scanning prior to having a visa interview? Or does it occur during the interview? Or are only applicants who obtained approval to get an American visa? Are they the only ones to have their fingers scanned?

BERNARD ALTER: The scanning will be done as part of the data input. It will be done before the interview. In the time between the scanning and the interview, the finger scan will be electronically transmitted back to Washington where it will be matched against other finger scans already done. If there are no matches that show ineligibilities, we’re cleared to issue a visa. If it shows a match involving a crime in the United States that involves an ineligibility it will tell us that and we can then discuss that issue with the applicant, if not at the window right away, certainly later.

QUESTION: So every applicant is getting their finger scanned, regardless of being issued a visa or not, sir?

BERNARD ALTER: Yes.

QUESTION: Applicants who already had their fingerprints scanned prior to the interview and those who obtained an American visa, they do not have to go through a finger scanning process at the port of entry?

BERNARD ALTER: They will, but I think an applicant would want that. At this time of stealing of identities- of people able to steal passports and steal credit cards and suddenly become someone they are not-by matching the fingerprint at the port of entry to the finger scan taken at the application time, we will know that it is the same person and it will be very difficult for anyone to steal your passport and use it with the visa in it.

QUESTION: So, they do have their fingers scanned one more time at the port of entry?

BERNARD ALTER: It’s a scan that matches what is already in the database. Let me add that we’ll have another press conference in the middle of August before we start finger scanning where we will demonstrate what will be involved-and again we will be delighted to answer any question you have at that time.

QUESTION: Mr. Alter, as you have probably noticed, the issue of getting an American visa is of great interest to the Korean public. So, if you could please explain what kind of countries are included in your visa waiver program and the possibility of Korea being included in this list-if so, at which point of time?

BERNARD ALTER: All right. I believe there are 27 countries ? European countries, Latin American countries, and some Asian countries as well. The criteria for participating in the visa waiver program involve a refusal rate of 3% or less. It involves having a fairly secure machine-readable passport, and it involves illegal populations in the United States from the country. In the case of Korea, the ineligibility rate for Koreans hovers around 5%. The passport is machine-readable but there are security problems-it is stolen very often and it is photo-substituted. However, you’re working on coming up with a more secure document. Then the third, the Korean illegal population in the United States is not huge, but it’s among the top 10 to 15. Let me add here that even if the criteria were met, after 9/11, it would be difficult. I think it is more difficult now for any country to join the visa waiver program. Particularly at a time when one country, Argentina, was kicked off and another country, Belgium, is actually on probation because of its insecure passport.

QUESTION: I have two questions for you. First of all, you mentioned how Korea is the first country in the world to introduce this kind of Internet and Web-based visa service. Many Koreans have a very good image of the United States and they wish and plan to visit your country. So my question would be, since this is a new system being newly introduced, do you have any plans to have a test period where both systems can be operated and then we can try to compare the merits and de-merits, and-would you like to answer that one first?

BERNARD ALTER: Yes. Short-term memory loss. Let’s take this one at a time. I guess the answer is both yes and no here. In the long term, the information required for the phone system is a lot less than the information required for the Web service. In addition, we cannot use the data in the telephone system for the downloading that we would need beforehand to do the finger scanning quickly. That said, over the next three weeks, we will be using the telephone system and we will continue to monitor the Web service. If, God forbid, something happens, we will fall back to the phone system. In addition, there is a transition period where they will stay with us. By the way, we don’t expect anything to happen, and I would be surprised if it does, but you have to plan for the worst possible. There is also a period of time when the phone system, while not usable, will still be connected. So again, if disaster struck, we would try to migrate the smaller amount of information to the phone system. But let me emphasize that our ability to process biometrically high volumes of applicants would be badly affected if we went back to the phone system as it currently is.

QUESTION: And the second question is: you told us how fifteen hundred visa applicants are getting interviews each day at the consular section at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. You talked about the five-day period, the goal that you have of issuing a visa to a Korean applicant. But actually the real delay comes not from this five-day period, but the fact that so many people have to wait for two to three months to get an interview itself. So, I was wondering what kind of measure or plans you have to minimize that waiting period.

BERNARD ALTER: Give us a new Chancery and I will guarantee you twenty-five hundred applicants a day and a wait of less than three weeks. We do not have space in the building we currently occupy to process the number of people who want to go to the United States.

QUESTION: My name is Tami Overby. I am with the American Chamber of Commerce. I represent about a thousand American companies who employ close to two million Korean employees and I just want to make sure I understood what you said. You said the rejection rate is about five percent, so are you telling me that ninety-five out of every one-hundred Korean applicants receive a U.S. visa?

BERNARD ALTER: The way I like to play with the numbers, nineteen out of every twenty applicants who comes to us walks away with a visa in their passport.

TAMI OVERBY: I’m very encouraged.

QUESTION: I also heard that when former president Ronald Reagan died, every employee of the U.S. government around the world was given a day off, and I heard a rumor that in the U.S. Embassy in Seoul only the consular section did not take that day off. Can you verify that and tell me why?

BERNARD ALTER: That’s true. We were faced with fifteen hundred people who had made appointments and were wanting visas and we were not going to cancel that and disappoint those people or try to figure out how we could get them back. It was also the same for immigrant visas. There were people who were scheduled to immigrate to the United States and then at the same time, we had Americans who might be in trouble. At that point, we just kept the whole section open.

TAMI OVERBY: On behalf of the two million Korean employees that our firms represent, I want to thank you personally-all your staff-on the outstanding work you’ve done on this program. We believe it will allow you to facilitate more legitimate visas and we congratulate you and thank you for your hard work. Kamsahamnida.

BERNARD ALTER: I didn’t pay her.

TAMI OVERBY: You and your staff pay me every time you issue a legitimate visa. Continue the payments.

QUESTION: Reporter Kim Dae Kyung from OhMyNews. First of all, if you could specify which countries are included in the 27 country-list of visa waiver agreements that you have. Secondly, are the exact same measures and changes being applied to the visa waiver program countries? Are same changes and measures that are being applied to Korea also being equally applied to countries that the United States has visa waiver programs with? The reason I’m raising this question is because, of course I do understand that these changes are being made as part of your effort to fight terrorism. However, please remember that Korea, after the United Kingdom, is one of the countries sending the largest amount of troops to Iraq despite the fact that a Korean by the name of Kim Sun-il died in that country. So the United States applying stricter measures to our country I think hurts Koreans’ emotions and sentiments. So again, are these changes and measures being applied equally to every country?

BERNARD ALTER: Let me start with the first question. If I was twenty years younger I could probably give you the list, but at this point, it is all I can do to remember the names of my children. I would advise you to visit our Web site where we do, in fact, list all 27 countries who are part of the visa waiver program.

MAUREEN CORMACK: We are printing it out, Mr. Kim. We will give you, and anyone else who would like one, a copy.

BERNARD ALTER: Now to answer the second question. We are aware of the close relationship Korea has had with the United States-economically, strategically, politically-that is one of the reasons why we have been able to wait as long as we have before we had to implement these new requirements. It was our ability to demonstrate the closeness of Korea with the U.S. government that allowed us to say, “Wait. Let’s wait until all the mistakes could possibly have been made as this is implemented, so when it’s our turn it will be smooth because it’s important to maintain this relationship, and it’s important to do this right.” Now in regards to finger scanning, I have to make the distinction. Anyone, anywhere in the world who has to apply for a visa, and say in Japan, that means students, people going to the United States to work, people on exchange visitors’ programs-they will be finger scanned at the Embassy or consulates in Japan. Those individuals, let’s use Japan again as an example, who do not need visas, like business travelers or tourists, will be finger scanned at the port of entry. So the question isn’t whether they’re going to be finger scanned, just where. Before closing, I would like to thank everyone for having the patience to sit here for an hour and a half, and invite anyone who is interested to visit our consular section and see what we do there. Just check with Public Affairs and they will arrange a visit, and if you would like, an interview with a consular officer of your choice-almost.