Flooded with Visa Requests US Sends Dozens of Temporary Employees to Brazil to Meet Demand

Big line at São Paulo's US Consulate in Brazil The US state has informed that the US Mission to Brazil processed a record number of visa applications – 820,000 – in fiscal year 2011, a 42 percent year-over-year increase. To meet the surging demand for US visas in Brazil, the Department of State is deploying waves of temporary employees to the US Embassy in Brazilian capital Brasília and US Consulates in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Recife.

These employees are helping to process extraordinary numbers of visa applications until permanent staff members arrive. The Department will double consular staffing in Brazil over the course of 2012, adding 50 new officer positions.

With the help of additional personnel, US Mission Brazil has reduced the average wait time for visa interview appointments in Brazil to less than 50 days.

While the Department always puts security first, visitors to the United States make critical contributions to economic growth and job creation.

That is why shortening visa interview wait times is also a priority – to encourage even greater numbers of Brazilians to visit the United States, a premier destination for travelers from around the world.

In a communiqué to the press the Stated Department stated that the United States and Brazil, “the two largest economies and the two largest democracies in the Western Hemisphere, share one of the most important trade and economic relationships in the world.”

According to the American Department of Commerce, more than 1.2 million Brazilians visited the United States in 2010, contributing nearly US$ 6 billion to the U.S. economy. By 2016, the United States could host a record 2.8 million Brazilian visitors.

The United States is also experiencing unprecedented growth in demand for US visas in China, where consular officers processed more than one million applications during fiscal year 2011, a 34 percent increase over 2010.

The average wait for visa interview appointments in China is now less than ten days. The American government is promising that the  US Missions to Brazil and China “will continue to reduce visa interview wait times to the greatest extent possible by adding staff and eliminating inefficiencies wherever possible.”

More information about wait times for visa interviews and processing can be found online at http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/wait/wait_4638.html  

Tags:

You May Also Like

Bargain Hunters Give Brazilian Market a Boost

Latin American stocks were mixed, with Brazilian shares climbing on bargain hunting following recent ...

Rapidinhas

Breasting the competitionCreated by Brazilian ad agency DM9 for lingerie manufacturer Valisčre, the display ...

Amid Explosive Growth Brazil’s Internet Stumbles over Hacking, Piracy and Censorship

As a rising star on the global stage and as the current financial model ...

How a city with no indigenous cultural roots  is creating a musical legacy.

Of all changes occurred in the last two decades, the most impressive was the ...

Brazilian Industry Shows Best Growth in Two Years

Industrial activity in the second quarter of 2007 reached the largest level in the ...

Brazil Gives Farewell Party to Pan Athletes But Nobody Comes

"Good but not perfect," that's the way Mario Vazquez Raí±a, president of the Pan ...

Brazilian Day in New York Goes "Global"

Brazilian Day in New York was a huge event this year, with a much ...

Despite Weak Dollar Sales Up 11% at Brazil’s Perdigí£o

Brazilian food company Perdigão reported net sales of R$ 1.2 billion in the first ...

Most Adopted Children from Brazil Go to Italy

Over the last two decades, some 12,000 Brazilian children have been adopted by foreign ...

Brazil Happy with Government’s Farm Insurance Programs

Brazil’s Minister of Agrarian Development, Miguel Rossetto, says that two Luiz Inácio Lula da ...