Consulate Highlight
REMARKS BY MICHAEL J. JACOBSEN
CHIEF, CONSULAR SECTION, U.S. CONSULATE GENERAL GUANGZHOU
AT U.S.-CHINA VISA CONFERENCE
DECEMBER 1, 2009
Director Wang, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Guangdong Foreign Affairs Office colleagues, ladies and gentlemen:
I am honored to join you here today along with my consular colleagues from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai. Special thanks to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, the Guangdong Foreign Affairs Office, and my American colleagues. I know that all of you worked hard to make this conference happen.
This year, the United States and China are celebrating 30 years of ever-growing and ever-improving diplomatic relations. In that spirit, during their historic meeting in Beijing last month, the leaders of our two countries issued a Joint Statement noting that: "[t]he United States and China have an increasingly broad base of cooperation and share increasingly important common responsibilities on many major issues concerning global stability and prosperity."
When speaking to a group of students in Shanghai, President Obama added:
"[C]ooperation must go beyond governments... and be rooted in the people -- in the studies we share, the business that we do, the knowledge that we gain, and even in the sports that we play. And these bridges must be built by young men and women just like you and your counterparts in America."
And indeed, the Joint Statement commits both countries to facilitating student exchanges, pointing out that nearly 100,000 Chinese students are attending U.S. academic institutions and that we will continue to welcome more students to our shores. At the same time, the United States will make special efforts to encourage an equal number of American students to attend colleges and universities in China during the next four years.
All of us are here today to demonstrate our continued support for this type of understanding and cooperation between our two countries.
We as diplomats and officials working in the consular field have a critical role to play in this endeavor.
For it is abundantly clear, beginning with the Joint Statement by our two leaders and continuing throughout the text of that document, that regular exchanges are essential to the growth of U.S.-China relations. As such, the visa laws and supporting policies that we direct and implement for American and Chinese travelers are the foundation for these government-to-government and people-to-people exchanges.
In the past 30 years, the flow of people between the United States and China has gone from virtually non-existent to the hundreds of thousands. This year, despite the global financial crisis, the approval rate for Chinese applicants was 80 percent, as compared to 75 percent in 2008. We issued 5 percent more visas than we did in 2008, and nearly 20 percent more visas as compared to 2007. The growth in visa issuances for Chinese students has been remarkable: 46 percent more visas were issued versus 2008, and 106 percent -- or more than double the number of visas – than were issued in 2007. Nowadays, 85 percent of Chinese applicants for U.S. student visas are successful.
Let me be clear: the policy of the U.S. Government is to facilitate the visa process for qualified student, business, official, group travel, and special humanitarian applicants. The wait time to apply for these visas is the lowest it has ever been, often just one day, particularly for government officials, or when the start of the school semester is just around the corner, or if there is an urgent business or medical need. The days of waiting many weeks and even months to complete special administrative processing for certain applicants are gone. Only three percent of all visa applicants worldwide require special screening, and the process now takes about two or three weeks.
To maintain service and efficiency while coping with the growth in visa applications, we have added consular officer positions while expanding old facilities and building new ones. We have increased our use of the Internet to facilitate the visa application process as well as to make that process more transparent.
I would like to make special mention here of our new consulate, which is due for completion in 2013 here in Guangzhou. The new consulate will be one of the largest and most modern consular facilities in the world, with 65 public service windows versus our current 43. It will feature state-of-the-art consular computer systems and function using renewable and environmentally-friendly energy resources. Construction of the US$260 million facility is a direct, concrete commitment to building a strong relationship with south China and expanding our bilateral relationship.
Of course, it is important to recognize that we must always balance growth and safety.
Two years ago in the Wall Street Journal, I first read about Yang Yuanyuan, or “Triple Y,” as he is affectionately known by his American colleagues in the Federal Aviation Administration. Following a series of airplane crashes and near-accidents in the 1990s, Yang was appointed the Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China from 2002 to 2007 and ordered to fix the problems.
Through an open and transparent attitude, terminating midnight flights, increasing passenger inspections, exchange programs with the FAA, training programs for pilots, new safety regulations, and consistent enforcement of these new standards, Director Yang transformed China’s aviation safety record into one of the best in the world while still managing record growth in planes and passengers. As the system stabilized, Director Yang began to facilitate new routes and approaches to save fuel and avoid congestion, thus improving efficiency and service.
We had a similar experience in the U.S. consular world in the years after 9/11. The vast majority of applicants were required to return to the visa interview windows, biometrics were collected, security databases were shared and expanded, and more applicants underwent special screening. Consular officer training was improved and more consular procedures were standardized. After strengthening our visa system, we once again began to facilitate, as we had done before 9/11, visas for qualified official, student, business, and other priority travelers.
And we will continue to facilitate travel for qualified applicants and protect U.S. borders. What we like about working in China, where the visa issuance rate is 80 percent, is that we can spend more time doing the former than the latter.
By the way, let me be transparent: I purposely chose to mention Director Yang and China’s aviation history and not Wall Street and the global financial crisis to make my point about balancing safety and growth. Why? Because we haven’t found our Triple Y yet. Maybe now it is Director Yang's turn to go to the United States and help us. I would be happy to expedite and issue his U.S. visa myself.
In closing, let me repeat the invitation of President Obama:
“I hope that many of you will have the opportunity to come and travel and visit the United States. You will be welcome. I think you will find that the American people feel very warmly towards the people of China.”
Xie xie da jia [Thank you everyone].