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Michele T. BondAssistant Secretary for Consular AffairsBureau of Consular Affairs
Goal Overview
The mission of the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) is to provide efficient and effective consular services to protect U.S. citizens abroad, ensure U.S. security, facilitate the entry of legitimate foreign travelers, and foster economic growth. Two core functions of this mission are the adjudication of passport and visa applications. Demand for passports and visas is subject to unpredictable factors, and this variability affects workload planning.
Domestically, the Department supports a significant presence across the country to respond to the consular service needs of the U.S. public. This presence consists of 29 passport agencies and centers and a network of more than 8,000 public offices managed by other federal, state, and local government agencies/offices designated to accept passport applications. Approximately 126 million U.S. citizens, 38.6 percent of the population, have valid passports; this number has almost doubled in the last decade. In fiscal year (FY) 2014, CA processed 13.3 million passport applications, a 4.6 percent increase over FY 2013. An expected surge in passport renewal applications represents a rising challenge to the achievement of our passport-related performance goal. Based on analysis of renewal application trends, passport renewal rates increased by 14.8 percent in FY 2015, and are expected to increase further through FY 2017.
Executive Order 13597, issued in January 2012, required CA to increase visa adjudicating capacity in Brazil and China by 40 percent and ensure that 80 percent of nonimmigrant visa (NIV) applicants worldwide are interviewed within three weeks of receipt of an application. In FY 2015, CA adjudicated more than 13 million NIV applications, a 13.5 percent increase from FY 2014, while working through extraordinary increases in visa demand in key markets, including a 50 percent increase in China. Adjudications of NIV applications grew by more than 86 percent from FY 2009 to FY 2015. Even with this growth, in FY 2015, more than 92.5 percent of applicants worldwide, on average, were interviewed within three weeks of submitting their applications, a significant change from 70 percent in early FY 2012.
In calendar year (CY) 2014, the Department’s efforts facilitated the travel of 75 million visitors to the United States, who, according to the Department of Commerce’s 2014 United States Travel and Tourism Statistics, spent $220.6 billion, an average of almost $3,000 per visitor. An estimated 1.1 million jobs in the United States are supported by international travel. In addition to the economic benefits, the visa adjudication process puts CA at the front line of U.S. border security, as consular staff vet individuals who seek to travel to the United States.
Strategies
To meet passport demand, CA is creating a mechanism to process renewal applications online, reducing the level of effort required to issue passports in these cases. In FY 2012, CA successfully launched an online passport card pilot program, testing its ability to securely process passport card applications online from U.S. citizens who already had valid passport books. Under the ConsularOne initiative, CA will use the lessons learned in the pilot to offer improved electronic transactions for passport book and passport card renewals.
CA tracks visa applicant wait times and reports average percentages on a weekly basis. Consular personnel continually balance efforts to meet growing demand with the need to conduct vigilant adjudications that uphold its uncompromising standard of secure processes and documents, using these reports as guidelines for action. Meeting the visa performance goal is dependent first upon staffing. Workload growth is projected to outstrip available personnel in FY 2016. Therefore, CA reviews embassy and consulate staffing on an annual basis to best align personnel with workload. In addition, the Department continues to implement alternative staffing strategies, such as Limited Non-Career Appointments, to address staffing challenges. Additional efforts include expanding the physical space in visa sections—particularly the number of interview windows—and upgrading to more modern systems and technology.
Consular Affairs will continue to pilot and replicate projects that improve the efficiency of the visa process. In 2012, the Departments of State and Homeland Security implemented a pilot program that allows consular officers to waive in-person interviews for individuals renewing nonimmigrant visas in the same category who meet all biometric requirements. Applicants must be applying within the consular district of their normal residence and their previous visas must have expired with 12 or 48 months, depending on the visa category. The Secretary made the Interview Waiver Program (IWP) permanent in 2014, and it is now operational at more than 130 embassies and consulates. Consular officers issued more than one million visas without interviews in FY 2014, and more than 1.5 million in FY 2015. The highly successful IWP facilitates legitimate travel while enhancing national security by allowing greater resources to be allocated to evaluating potential travelers who do not qualify for the IWP, and about whom we have less information and require interviews. Eliminating interviews saves qualified visa applicants time and money, encouraging repeat travel to the United States. A trained consular adjudicator thoroughly reviews all applications eligible for the IWP, and all applicants undergo the same extensive biographic and biometric database checks as individuals whom consular officers interview in person.
Another example of CA’s development of flexible, efficient methods to provide consular services is its use of leading management tactics to expand productivity and increase transparency in the visa application process via the Global Support Strategy (GSS), a worldwide program that standardizes many processes across all U.S. embassies and consulates. This standardization effort maximizes efficiency and provides scalability to respond to fluctuations in demand. GSS supports 172 posts in 116 countries, representing 98 percent of worldwide nonimmigrant visa volume.
Progress Update
Overview
Passports: During FY 2016 Q4, the Department continued to exceed its goal of processing over 99 percent of passport applications within the targeted timeframe, although the number of applications received increased by 5.9 percent compared to FY 2015 Q4. As of October 1, 2016, the Department processed 99.9 percent of routine passport applications and 99.9 percent of expedited cases within the service levels committed to the U.S. citizen traveling public as indicated on travel.state.gov.
Nonimmigrant Visas: During FY 2016 Q4, the Department continued to meet the goal set by Executive Order 13597. In the fourth quarter, 84 percent of nonimmigrant visa (NIV) applicants for B-1 and B-2 (business and tourism) visas could receive a visa interview appointment within three weeks of submitting an application.
Explanation of Results
Passports: Passport Services continued to distribute application workload across its network of passport agencies and centers to ensure that all resources were fully employed and customer service timeframes were met. Passport Services’ continuous analysis of workload, increased Headquarters support from the SA-17 Virtual Passport Agency, and judicious use of overtime ensured the timely processing of passport applications even as workload increased.
Nonimmigrant Visas: Through active shifting of staff resources towards embassies and consulates facing workload surges, as well as efficiencies and process improvements at overseas posts, the Department continued to exceed the goal of 80 percent of nonimmigrant visa (NIV) applicants receiving interview appointments within three weeks of submitting an application.
The Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) and overseas consular managers continuously monitor NIV interview wait times. Each week, posts report wait times and CA calculates the global metric. CA works with overseas consular managers to analyze developing trends to determine whether additional short-term support or full-time positions are justified based on workload. Thus far, CA successfully has identified available resources to meet the most pressing staffing needs.
CA anticipates it will continue to maintain the standard wait time of three weeks or less for NIV interview appointments for at least 80 percent of applicants, but world events affecting demand for services or available resources may justify specific exemptions in a given country or region. Staffing challenges (explained below) led to a lower percentage of applicants able to schedule an appointment within 21 days.
Challenges and Opportunities
Passports: In FY 2007 and 2008, the Department of State experienced an unprecedented surge in passport application workload as a result of implementation of the second phase of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). Passport Services’ workload already has begun to increase as a result of passport renewal applications associated with documents issued during the WHTI surge, since passports for most adult applicants are valid for ten years. Passport Services continues to prepare to address this surge in applications, and expects to continue to meet its posted service level commitments to the public.
Nonimmigrant Visas: The demand for NIV appointments can fluctuate both seasonally and on an ad hoc basis, affecting a consular section’s ability to maintain three week appointment availability for 80 percent of visa applicants.
The economic, political, or security situations in a given country also have the potential to significantly affect demand. A more robust economy can lead to greater demand for visas, as can political instability.
Events beyond our control, such as natural disasters or political upheaval, also may affect the workload of consular sections in a particular country or region. Examples include the closures of Embassies Damascus (2012) and Sanaa (February 2015) and the limitation of NIV services in Baghdad (2014).
During FY 2017, the Department plans to sustain entry level Foreign Service hiring slightly above attrition levels. Even with targeted hiring of consular personnel through alternative staffing models, CA will face a deficit of adjudicating officers in the near term. Between the end of FY 2015 and FY 2016, the number of vacant entry-level consular positions grew from 73 to 125. This, along with the lengthy security clearance process, represents the most immediate risk to the Department’s ability to continue to meet the Executive Order goal, and accounted for this quarter’s results, which were lower than in previous years.
Next Steps
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Passports: To continue to meet its service commitment to the public as passport workload surges, CA has expanded its network of passport agencies and added more public counters across the U.S., employed highly qualified and dedicated staff, and managed its workload strategically and effectively, including rebalancing workloads of mailed passport applications.
Nonimmigrant Visas: CA has adopted a multi-pronged approach to ensure compliance with E.O. 13597. CA and the Bureau of Human Resources have developed several alternative staffing programs, including the Consular Fellows Program, Appointment Eligible Family Members, and Civil Service adjudicators. In addition, the Department utilizes domestic and overseas staff, as well as When Actually Employed (WAE) annuitants, as temporary duty adjudicators as much as practicable to reduce wait times. CA continues to explore the utilization of technology to add precision to visa adjudications and thereby enhance efficiency. Some situations pose difficulties, such as crises affecting post operations (e.g., Damascus, Sanaa) and host government policies or laws that limit our ability to effectively manage staffing levels in those posts.
Expand All
Performance Indicators
Passport Processing Efficiency
Visa Applicant Interview Wait Times
Contributing Programs & Other Factors
The Department of State is part of a multi-faceted U.S. government effort that works with several public-private partnerships with a shared mission to increase international travel to the United States and contribute to our economic growth and job creation. At more than 220 visa-processing embassies and consulates worldwide, a highly trained corps of consular officers and staff support legitimate travel by adjudicating millions of nonimmigrant visa applications each year, allowing qualified, job-creating tourists, businesspeople, and students to visit the United States, while protecting our borders from terrorists, criminals, and other mala-fide travelers. In 2014 and beyond, the Departments of State, Homeland Security, Commerce, and other members of the interagency team dedicated to visa improvements will work further to expand capacity for timely adjudication of more nonimmigrant visa applications.
State issues U.S. passports to eligible U.S. citizens and nationals to facilitate trade, travel, and tourism at its 29 passport agencies and centers, 27 of which have public counters, a headquarters office in Washington, D.C., the National Passport Information Center, and a network of more than 8,000 acceptance facilities across the United States. State also issues passports to U.S. citizens who apply at our embassies and consulates abroad.
No Data Available
