Daniel Pyun of the Korean Chamber of Commerce, left, sits with Rep. Neil Abercrombie, middle, and Chong-kuk Kim of the Korean Hawaii Tour Association yesterday at Abercrombie's Honolulu office. The trio was speaking out about a proposed visa waiver program for Korean visitors.
Photo By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Speaking at a news conference in his Honolulu office yesterday, Abercrombie (D, Honolulu) said there is a chance that a pilot visa waiver program for South Korea citizens could be passed in the current session of Congress.
Abercrombie said a Republican anti-immigration bias is unfairly hitting tourists and Koreans in particular. But, he said, he was encouraged by statements by GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole and other Republicans at last week's convention that a stance against illegal immigrants doesn't mean opposition to people who have legitimate reasons to visit this country.
It's time to loosen up and allow the Koreans the same privilege that other countries, such as Japan, have already been granted: the right to enter the United States without a visa if their intentions are to visit and leave, Abercrombie said.
Currently, it takes a week to 10 days for Koreans to obtain U.S. tourist visa.
Abercrombie has submitted a bill in the House as a companion to one introduced by Hawaii Sen. Dan Inouye in the Senate. Abercrombie's measure calls for a pilot program that for three years would allow South Korean nationals to come into the United States without visas under certain conditions.
One major provision that differs from restrictions applied to other countries is that tour operators in Korea who book trips would have to post a $200,000 bond with the State Department. Visitors would not get the easy entry permission unless they are using such bonded agents and have round-trip tickets.
Abercrombie said the visitor program has become entangled in Republican concerns about illegal immigrants.
He said someone who wants to leave Korea or any other country and take up illegal residence in the United States already can do so by going through the normal, if time-consuming, visitor visa application process.
Chong-kuk Kim, secretary-general of the Korean Tourism Agents Association of Hawaii, joined Abercrombie in pushing for the waiver and said in his years of seeing group tours come from Korea he has never heard of anyone staying behind when the tour went home.
Kim also said Hawaii should get behind moves to bring other nationals in as tourists and not concentrate only on the Japanese as the Asian customer.
"If we are focusing on one single tour market, it is going to be very risky," Kim said.
Janice Koh of the Korean Chamber of Commerce in Honolulu, said Korean visitors to the United States will reach 500,000 this year and Hawaii will get its share. The total will double by 1998, she said. That is under existing programs. "With the visa waiver program it will triple, at least," she said.
In 1994, 112,000 Koreans came to Hawaii, according to the U.S. government.
Hawaii officials back the Korean visa waiver and Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono held a seminar in July, urging businesses to lobby for it because of the possible jobs and other benefits to Hawaii.