WASHINGTON, 3 February 2005 — Stringent US visa procedures are getting American companies increasingly worried over business losses to competitors from Asia and Europe, despite government assurances that the situation is under control, officials said Tuesday. William Reinsch, president of the US National Foreign Trade Council, said savvy European and Asian countries were welcoming with open arms companies whose executives faced visa difficulties in the United States.
He said foreigners would not easily discard the perception that they were unwelcome in the United States, citing difficulties they faced entering the country for education, business or tourism after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. “It is going to take a long time to overcome that kind of perception,” Reinsch told a forum organized by the Global Business Dialogue Inc. in which US State Department and Homeland Security Department officials participated.
He effectively shrugged off claims by Janice Jacobs, the deputy assistant secretary for visa services, and Lora Ries, the policy director for immigration, that the government was slowly getting a handle on the problem. Reinsch, whose council is a leading advocacy group for the US private sector, said he had met company representatives only last month and that the problem had not been contained. “There were idiosyncratic improvements here and there around the edges but I think the problem persists,” he said.
A recent study by the Santangelo Group, a Washington-based global business consulting firm, said that business visa processing delays and denials cost the US economy at least $30 billion during the year up to the summer of 2004. It cited difficulties faced by business travelers from India, China, Russia, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea, among other economies.