Visa flap dampens
Chinese tourismUH programs suffer as Beijing
restricts travel to America due to
post-9/11 rules
A dispute over the processing of visas is stifling the state's efforts to provide training to the Chinese and to develop tourism between China and the United States, state officials said.
China has objected to increased U.S. anti-terrorism security measures such as the fingerprinting of visa applicants. State tourism liaison Marsha Wienert said the China is restricting official travel to the United States because of the increased security and the difficulty of getting U.S. visas.
Two weeks ago the Chinese also shut down the U.S. visa information center in Shanghai. The center, a private business run under a contract with the U.S. government, provided information on visas and scheduled appointments for interviews at the U.S. Embassy and consulates.
No new visa interviews for travel to the United States are being scheduled until the center reopens. If the center remains closed for weeks, it could have an impact on tourism and force the cancellation of educational and cultural exchange programs scheduled for Hawaii this summer, Wienert said.
China, Wienert said, has the potential to be a huge market.
"The harder it is for people to access our destination -- students wanting to study, business meetings and so on -- it's going to have an impact to our economy," Wienert said. "The minute you stop the flow of those visitors for any reason, it's going to impact the economy."
She said because it takes at least 30 days to get an interview for a visa, interviews were already scheduled through the end of the month.
But the visa difficulties and the restrictions on official travel have already started to affect training programs that the University of Hawaii hoped to offer to the Chinese, Wienert said.
It might have been a factor in the rejection of a proposal to train Chinese hotel managers that had been planned for this summer at UH's School of Travel Industry Management, she said.
Richard Bahar, a business development program manager at the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, said other programs to provide training for airport managers and public administrators this summer might also be affected by the visa difficulties.
Rachel Soma, assistant director of professional programs at UH-Manoa's School of Travel Industry Management, said there is a lot of interest by the Chinese for hotel training programs, especially as the 2008 Olympics nears.
"We'd like to have them here," Soma said, noting that Waikiki is a great laboratory for hotel training. "It's good for our economy and for their learning experience," she said.
If the problems continue, Soma said, the university might have to hold the training in China instead of bringing the Chinese to Hawaii.
Jian Zhang, a vice president at Dragon Tours & Travel, which specializes in arranging tours for people from China, said he has about 150 tourists scheduled to arrive in July from China. All of them need to make appointments for their visa applications but cannot because the call center is closed.
Zhang said he thinks the call center will reopen soon. But he said the larger dispute over visas to the United States is limiting what could be a huge source of tourists for Hawaii.
"They (Chinese) want to come," Zhang said.
Visa difficulties also make it hard to do business. He said he had a family scheduled to come on April 30, but they could not get an appointment for a visa interview until April 28. He canceled their hotel and air fare but then had to rebook when their visa came through at the last minute. "That happens a lot," Zhang said.
Educational and cultural exchange programs involving Chinese scheduled for this summer at the East-West Center are also on hold because of visa difficulties, officials said.
Elizabeth Buck, a special assistant for education to the East-West Center president, said a U.S.-China Institute workshop for Chinese and American teachers is planned for late June, but the visa applications for 14 Chinese teachers have been in limbo in China's Ministry of Education for months.
The teachers will also still have to make appointments for visa interviews once the U.S. call center reopens.
The uncertainty makes it hard to plan the program, Buck said.
"I'm assuming it will go through OK," she said. But at some point, airline tickets have to be purchased, and a decision has to be made on whether the program will have to be delayed or canceled.
Another program involving teachers from Southeast Asia had to go on without teachers from China last year, she said.
June Kuramoto, an East-West Center program officer, said she is having difficulty getting visas for 10 Chinese officials for an international population seminar that starts June 1, and is not sure how many of them will be able to get visas.
In a briefing last month, the Foreign Ministry said the Chinese government closed the U.S. visa call center because it was scheduling appointments, an activity for which it was not approved.
But the United States said the center opened March 3 after months of consultations and the approval of Chinese authorities.
The U.S. Embassy, in a notice posted on its Web site, said it was investigating why local police officers closed the call center April 23.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the fees being charged by the call center were not in line with those approved by the Chinese government department supervising the industry.
When the call center is reopened is up to the Chinese government, said Kelly Shannon, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs.
"We obviously think it's important for the Chinese to have access to the call center," she said. The center had been fielding up to 10,000 calls a week for information on visas and to set up appointments for visa interviews at the U.S. Embassy and consulates in China and was a popular service, she said.
Chris McNally, a China expert at the East-West Center, said it is difficult to say whether the call center closure is related to the larger issue over visas and new security measures.
McNally and Eric Harwit, an associate professor of Asian studies at UH-Manoa, said the Chinese might be reacting to complaints about the fees charge by the call center.
"What they (the Chinese government) don't want really is a middleman taking advantage of the desperation of many Chinese to get the visas," Harwit said.
If the call center remains closed, however, "that would have a devastating effect," Harwit said. "If it really is a long-term prospect, it could have serious repercussions."
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing began collecting fingerprints of Chinese applying for visas on March 22. The fingerprint collection is required by a law passed by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
It will enable the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service to verify that a person entering the country is the same person on the visa and the same person that leaves the country.
Shannon said China is not being singled out for what she prefers to call "finger scanning."
More than 70 U.S. missions worldwide have begun collecting fingerprints.
By October all consulates will be equipped with electronic scanners to collect the fingerprints of people applying for visas.
She said two index fingers of a visa applicant are electronically scanned in an inkless process.
"Right now, things are a bit in limbo," McNally said of the Chinese reaction to restrict official travel.
The restriction on official Chinese travel to the United States might even depend on whether the Chinese government is paying or if someone else is paying, McNally explained.
"If money comes though China on official use passports, one should expect some problems," he said.
If the funds come from somewhere else, the Chinese might be able to travel unofficially.
"If an American institution pays for them, the problem may be less severe," he said.
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.