Friday, January 27, 2017

Consular Officer Ken

One of the things I've realized is that I never put a post up describing what it is exactly that I was doing in Guayaquil. During my two years there I worked in two sections at the Consulate, Non-Immigrant Visas and American Citizen Services. There are two other sections at the Consulate which I did not work in, Immigrant Visas and Fraud Prevention. I'll explain them quickly and get back to the work I did.

The path to an immigrant visa can be very long, as some types have long (like 20 years) wait periods to get the visa. But shortly, an American citizen or lawful permanent resident can petition for his relative to get an immigrant visa. (There are a few other immigrant visas for investors, certain workers, the diversity visa, and the special category-mostly for Afghans and Iraqis.) The American/LPR first files the paperwork and pays a fee in America. Once that paperwork is reviewed and is okay, then it's sent to the country where the relative lives. The relative has a medical exam and comes in for his interview, where his paperwork is also reviewed a second time. That's what the Immigrant Visa section does.

The fraud prevention section does what its name says. They check in on fake documents or do additional research on people whose story doesn't sound right. Additionally they work with local authorities to try to stop local fake visa/passport vendors or human trafficking rings. They also work with the Ecuadorian immigration authorities and the airlines to help them try to discover/recognize fake visas/passports.

I spent the majority of my time in Guayaquil in the non-immigrant visa section. There are 36 countries which are eligible for the visa waiver program, meaning they don't need a visa to visit the U.S.A. They do, however, have to fill out an online form and pay $14 every two years to keep it active. Every single other foreigner needs a visa to visit the United States. Almost everyone needs an in-person interview to obtain a visa. Kids under 14 and elderly people over 80, as well as people renewing the same type of visa do not need interviews. But the rest, which is a lot, need interviews. Some places in the world don't have that much demand, as it may not be common to travel to the U.S. or the cost to apply is prohibitively expensive. Or, in certain countries people are self selective and don't apply unless they're sure to be approved. But, in a place like Ecuador, where a lot of people have family in the U.S. and traveling to Disneyworld is a right of passage for most upper and middle-upper income families, lots of people apply.

The point of the interview is to make sure the person is qualified. There are three main tiers to qualification: you meet the requirements, you overcome the presumption of immigrant intent, and you don't have an ineligibility. For a visitor visa (the vast majority of visas) it's easy to qualify, for student, work, exchange visas there are a few more boxes to check. Most of the time if someone has an ineligibility that becomes apparent in the system, or hopefully during the interview. Those usually have to do with previously living in the U.S.A. unauthorized, committing a crime in the U.S.A., or something like that. The big issue, and the main focus of all the interviews I did (over 34,000) is the presumption of immigrant intent.

Immigration law, namely the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and its amendments, presumes that everyone applying for a non-immigrant visa is actually trying to immigrate to the U.S. Thus, the applicant needs to demonstrate that he is not trying to immigrate, but just trying to visit the U.S. and then come back. That's mainly done by evaluating their situation in Ecuador, and whether they'd be willing to leave (to go and live and work/live in the States). Sometimes that's easy to do, but there are plenty of borderline cases. It costs $160 per person to apply for the visa, which does create a filter on bad applicants (or at least repeat bad applicants).

We interviewed from 7:45 to 12:30 or 12:45 on most days, often a bit shorter, sometimes longer. The State Department standard is 25 adjudications per hour, so a normal day was usually 110-140 adjudications. (We did non-interview renewals in the afternoon.) Because families interview together, 25 interviews aren't necessary to do 25 visa adjudications. We all loved to get families (and dreaded a long line of single people) because although a family of five might take longer, it won't take five times longer than a single person-so that's a good way to boost your numbers. During my time in Guayaquil there were days during crazy high demand that we (the section) interviewed over 1,000 applicants in a day. More normal (it varies a lot) was between 500-600 applicants a day.

It was super interesting. It can get repetitive, and can be draining if you have a lot of complicated cases, but I really enjoyed the work. It was a great opportunity to learn how to be polite and respectful while giving people bad news (refusals). Due to the volume, there are all sorts of statistics that can be drawn from tourist visas, and that was also very interesting to me.

When I switched to the American Citizen services section, the work was much more varied. It was also incredibly interesting. The main work is adjudicating passports and CRBAs. Passport interviews are necessary for people under 16, first time passports after turning 16, and a few other cases in which people don't qualify for adult renewals. For a first time passport, we are responsible for verifying citizenship-as the applicant doesn't have a passport to prove citizenship. We also do emergency passports, for people whose passports have been lost or stolen while they were visiting/living in Ecuador. A passport interview is sometimes done in two or three minutes, but usually takes five or six.

The Consular Report of Birth Abroad, or CRBA, is the document that an American parent obtains for his or her child born outside of the States, but who is a citizen at birth. Not all the children of Americans are children, it depends on which parent (if not both) is American, whether it's the father or the mother (yes the law is different) and whether the parents are married or not. There are different requirements depending on the aforementioned situation. In these cases, I was making the first official determination of citizenship, and this process does take longer. It's usually 10-15 minutes of document review before the interview, and then a 10-15 minute interview afterward. There were a few times the interview went longer, and a few cases I might've done in five minutes-but that's about the minimum due simply to the signatures required.

Additionally, work in ACS also involved visited incarcerated Americans and ensuring they were receiving adequate care and protection in jail/prison. This is stipulated by law, includes dual nationals, so there is a consistent population of prisoners to be visited. An important thing to note, which is very often misrepresented in the media is that the U.S. Government does not generally advocate for release of prisoners or get involved in their legal situation. There are likely exceptions, but the purpose of the visits is to ensure the incarcerated is being treated properly and is aware of the basics of the legal system in Ecuador. Occasionally, we would also visit certain Americans to verify their welfare, usually if family was concerned, or they were hospitalized and no family was around. We also provide a form certifying the death of an American in Ecuador and often considerable guidance to help deceased Americans' families deal with the logistics of death in a foreign country. I also did some outreach about voting from abroad for the 2016 general election. A few times I oversaw what are called repatriation loans, which is when a destitute and desperate American is abroad and wishes to return to the States-and can't pay for it. It's a lengthy process, and it is just a loan, it is legal debt and the recipient will not be issued a passport until it is paid.

Very interesting, and often challenging work. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to do the work I did, albeit on a limited contract.