RIYADH, 7 November 2004 — The US Embassy here has “dramatically improved” the visa issuance system for Saudi nationals and with a streamlined system in place, more than 66 percent Saudi applicants including students are now issued visas, US Ambassador James C. Oberwetter said.
He said visa rules have been streamlined and the US consular offices have also reduced the time lag for processing visa applications and interviews.
The improved system is good news for Saudi applicants and for those Saudi students who were caught in the backlash of Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington that drove thousands of Saudis back into Saudi universities. Most of these students have a clean profile and they can qualify for interviews again and obtain visas.
Oberwetter also claimed that Saudis traveling to the US, in most cases, now face no hassle and humiliation at the hands of US officials either at the airport or elsewhere.
The ambassador said that “most reports from people returning from the US show now that their reception is much more friendly than reported earlier, say a year or more ago”.
“So, good work is being done by all US employees involved at airport receiving areas including government agencies and we have made good progress on this score compared to previous years,” he said.
Asked about the drop in the number of Saudi students going to US universities, Oberwetter said that “the numbers of students that we are now receiving show that the drop in students seems to be leveling off. It is not further going down.”
