Bush's "Cash for Visas" program
April 23, 2007 -- On August 28, 2006, WMR reported on how the U.S. visa issuing process was being outsourced to cronies with no accountability for the visa fee funds received from U.S. embassies abroad. We reported on what was occurring with the "I-Visa," a special visa required for journalists wishing to visit the United States:
Certain U.S. embassies, like those in Copenhagen and Berlin, through a bank wire contrivance, require visa fees to be paid into special bank accounts established by the various U.S. embassies. In Germany, the Bush cronies have cut a deal with a small outfit called Roskos and Meier OHG, a 23-person subsidiary of the giant banking consortium, Alianz Group. Roskos and Meier has only been around since 1994 when Messrs. Roskos and Meier formed their company to provide insurance and financial services in the Berlin-Brandenburg area. Now they have a lucrative sweetheart deal with the U.S. embassy to confirm that visa fees have been paid from individuals applying for visas at the Berlin embassy and Frankfurt consulate. The visa payments go to a special account established at Dresdner Bank AG Berlin, Bank Routing Number (BLZ): 120 800 00, Account No. (Kontonr.): 405 125 7600. In Denmark, the journalist visa money (600 Danish Kroner) is wired to a special embassy account at the Jyske Bank Reg. No. 5013, account number 200200-2. Internet banking or bank-to-bank payments are not permitted. The U.S. embassy in Helsinki requires journalists to pay 85 Euros into Nordea Bank account #221918-16629.
We have now been informed that the US visa application process is being further outsourced by the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs to outside local contractors in cities around the world. The Bush administration claims it is tightening up U.S. border patrols. The State Department's program clearly shows that the Bush claims about national security are fraudulent.
If someone wishes to apply for a visa to come to the United States, the visa applicant contacts a non-U.S. embassy local contractor to apply for a visa. After the individual pays the visa application fee, they are iven a phone number and a PIN number. The applicant phones a Call Center and has up to 8 minutes to ask questions. The applicant is then given an appointment date by the Call Center. When the applicant arrives at the U.S. embassy Visa Section, the applicant's documents are screened by another local contractor in a waiting room before the applicant presents himself or herself for an interview at the consular window with an American Consular Officer.
Certain U.S. embassies, like those in Copenhagen and Berlin, through a bank wire contrivance, require visa fees to be paid into special bank accounts established by the various U.S. embassies. In Germany, the Bush cronies have cut a deal with a small outfit called Roskos and Meier OHG, a 23-person subsidiary of the giant banking consortium, Alianz Group. Roskos and Meier has only been around since 1994 when Messrs. Roskos and Meier formed their company to provide insurance and financial services in the Berlin-Brandenburg area. Now they have a lucrative sweetheart deal with the U.S. embassy to confirm that visa fees have been paid from individuals applying for visas at the Berlin embassy and Frankfurt consulate. The visa payments go to a special account established at Dresdner Bank AG Berlin, Bank Routing Number (BLZ): 120 800 00, Account No. (Kontonr.): 405 125 7600. In Denmark, the journalist visa money (600 Danish Kroner) is wired to a special embassy account at the Jyske Bank Reg. No. 5013, account number 200200-2. Internet banking or bank-to-bank payments are not permitted. The U.S. embassy in Helsinki requires journalists to pay 85 Euros into Nordea Bank account #221918-16629.
We have now been informed that the US visa application process is being further outsourced by the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs to outside local contractors in cities around the world. The Bush administration claims it is tightening up U.S. border patrols. The State Department's program clearly shows that the Bush claims about national security are fraudulent.
Bush's "Cash for Visas" program
If someone wishes to apply for a visa to come to the United States, the visa applicant contacts a non-U.S. embassy local contractor to apply for a visa. After the individual pays the visa application fee, they are iven a phone number and a PIN number. The applicant phones a Call Center and has up to 8 minutes to ask questions. The applicant is then given an appointment date by the Call Center. When the applicant arrives at the U.S. embassy Visa Section, the applicant's documents are screened by another local contractor in a waiting room before the applicant presents himself or herself for an interview at the consular window with an American Consular Officer.
This system, worthy of the Soviet bureaucracy, increases the number of applicants processed per day. With the application fee being non-refundable, whether or not a visa is issued, the number of applicants in one U.S. embassy in Latin America is 300 in one day at $100 per application, that is $30,000 for one day at one US embassy.
With most of the document scrutiny placed in the hands of private contractors, where fraud is more rampant than it is among U.S. consular officials, the Bush administration is putting up for sale entry to the United States. Security is being sacrificed for increased visa revenues, most of which go to slush funds in foreign bank accounts. In 2006, 5,836,718 Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Visas were issued by U.S. Visa issuing offices around the world. At $100 per visa, that equals a potential total of $583,671,800 in visa fees being collected by private contractors under the new outsourcing system. That does not include the local bribes and kickbacks. Another Bush legacy will be the criminalization of the U.S visa process.
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 1:45 AM
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