Steven Diehl
Obtaining visas for international business travelers recently has become a complicated task given new security measures in several countries. Entry into China particularly is challenging this summer as officials there prepare for the Summer Olympics in Beijing. Steven Diehl, vice president of business development for U.S.-based visa and passport service provider CIBT, spoke with The Transnationalabout stringent visa rules and how travel management professionals should cope. An excerpt of the discussion follows.
Can you describe recent developments regarding international visas?
As tourism picks up to some of the destinations, the countries have become a little bit slower in terms of handling the visa work. So for example, [processing in] Brazil oftentimes isn't as quick as it used to be. It used to be that you were able to get a Brazilian visa in a couple days. In many cities, it is taking a couple of weeks because they have so many visitors. They are now competing to get visas from the same consulates, so there is generally a slowdown in the turnaround time for visas. When you add the fact that the embassies are more security conscious, and you have a higher demand for visas, processing is taking a little bit longer across the board. China has introduced a number of new initiatives that have made obtaining a visa much more restrictive than even earlier this year. China, up until April of this year, allowed U.S. visitors to visit, but the process was straightforward. So let's say, for example, you were told that you needed to go for business: You would complete an application form, attach a photo, have a letter of guarantee from your company in the United States and that was pretty much it. Those days are gone. To go to China now as a business traveler you need to have an invitation that is approved by the foreign ministry. That process has become very laborious for people in China. Oftentimes, they don't know what to do to get that invitation for their U.S. visitors. The people here still end up waiting, and they still might not have the proper documentation.
Do you expect that process to ease up after the Olympics?
We think it will ease up. We haven't heard that officially from the Chinese but they have said that the new restrictions are related to security for the Olympics. So if that is the case, it is probably a safe assumption that they will relax the rules afterward. We certainly hope so, and we know that our clients hope so as well, because for many of them, a process that used to take two days has now taken, in some cases, probably a month because they have had such a difficult time getting all of the paperwork together.
Which elements of the visa process differ the most from country to country?
Where countries differ the most is whether or not an invitation is required. Not all countries require that: If you are traveling to Kenya for business, you don't need an invitation; whereas, if you are traveling to China, you do need an invitation. If you look at a world map, most of the countries that require an invitation are former Russian states: Russia always requires an invitation, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Belarus. The other area where consulates and embassies differ is with handling of non-U.S. passports. A large percentage of people who are in the U.S. workforce are people who are here on temporary visas. Requirements for Indian employees, British employees and Canadian employees differ oftentimes from a U.S. passport holder, so we have to stay on top of that. If an Indian passport holder calls us and says they work for Johnson & Johnson and needs to travel to France, those requirements are going to be very different than a U.S. employee working for the same company.
What other challenges are you presented with in trying to process visas?
The single biggest challenge is that the visa and passport component of a travel booking is more often than not an afterthought. When people generally make their travel plans, they make their air and hotel arrangements and then they realize there is this other piece--the visa and passport piece. More often than not, our clients come to us and they need the service very quickly. In New York, we can obtain visas for China on a same-day basis, but in Chicago the fastest that the Chinese consulate will issue a visa will be five business days, so it really depends. You would think that the same country would offer the same sort of service in all of the cities that they have consulates, but that really is not the case. Brazil is another example: in New York, you are looking at a couple of days, in Los Angeles you are looking at a two-week period. So we need to be very good communicators and explain to our clients what they are up against at the very beginning of the process so they can allot enough time.
What are travel management companies concerned about regarding visas?
From the TMC's perspective, their concern is that they will end up booking a ticket that later has to be changed because that person may not have been able to secure documents in time for the trip, and then the first question that the corporate client is going to have is, who is responsible for those fees? The TMC wants to be in a position where it can accurately advise a traveler how long it will take to get a visa or passport or both, so that a person can book a trip far enough out and not run into change of ticket penalties and things like that. So that is how the visa and passport piece becomes important for them.