1.This Act may be cited as the
Welcoming Business Travelers and Tourists to America Act of
2011
.
2.Congress finds the following:
(1)International
travel to the United States generates more than $134 billion annually in
exports and supports 1.8 million United States jobs.
(2)Each overseas
visitor spends an average of $4,000 at hotels, restaurants, and other United
States businesses.
(3)As an industry
sector, travel and tourism creates one of the country’s only balance-of-trade
surpluses, valued at $31.7 billion in 2010.
(4)Global travel
spending is expected to double over the next decade, reaching $2.1
trillion.
(5)While world-wide
long-haul international travel grew by 40 percent between 2000 and 2010, the
United States market share of long-haul travel dropped from 17 percent in 2000
to 12 percent during the same timeframe.
(6)Over that decade,
the United States lost the opportunity to welcome 78 million visitors and
generate $606 billion in direct and downstream spending.
(7)The volume of
travel to the United States, as compared with other global destinations, is
particularly uncompetitive from emerging markets with fast growing
demand.
(8)Lagging overseas
arrivals result in large part from a United States visa application process
that is perceived by potential business and leisure travelers as inefficient,
time consuming, and inaccessible.
(9)The Government
Accountability Office has reported that the Department of State’s efforts to
address staffing, facilities, and other consular constraints are generally
temporary, unsustainable, and insufficient to meet expected increases in demand
for nonimmigrant visa applications.
(10)Instituting new
procedures to make the visa process more efficient without reducing security
protocols and developing longer-term plans that accurately meet increasing
workload demand can systemically address visa application backlogs and
inefficiencies.
(11)By regaining 17
percent of the long-haul travel market in 2015 and sustaining it through 2020,
the United States can attract 98 million more visitors, create 1.3 million
additional jobs, and generate $859 billion in United States economic output by
2020.
(12)Increased
international travel to the United States also achieves United States foreign
policy objectives by introducing foreign visitors the United States and to
Americans, who are the United States best goodwill ambassadors.
(13)The Department of
State recently implemented some reforms to accelerate visa application
processing in China and Brazil, laying the foundation to increase capacity, but
still requires additional reforms to meet demand on a permanent, systemic
basis.
(14)Removing the
self-imposed barriers in the visa application process that currently discourage
inbound international travel to the United States would yield significant
economic and public diplomacy benefits for the United States.
3.Notwithstanding
any other provision of law, the Secretary of State shall set a visa processing
standard of 12 or fewer calendar days at United States diplomatic and consular
missions in China, Brazil, and India, and use machine readable nonimmigrant
visa fees to hire a sufficient number of Foreign Service officers and limited
non-career appointment consular officers to meet and maintain such standard
throughout the year.
4.
(a)The Secretary of
State shall conduct a two-year pilot program for the processing of nonimmigrant
visas using secure remote video-conferencing technology as a method for
conducting visa interviews of applicants, and shall work with other Federal
agencies that use such secure communications to help ensure security of the
video-conferencing transmission and encryption.
(b)Not later than 90 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall initiate a rulemaking
process to establish the pilot program described in subsection (a), criteria
for participation in such program, and the fee for such program in accordance
with subsection (d).
(c)The Secretary of State shall ensure that
the pilot program described in subsection (a) includes as many visa applicants
as practicable by—
(1)establishing a
reasonable cost of enrollment;
(2)providing such
applicants with clear and consistent eligibility guidelines; and
(3)making program
enrollment convenient and easily accessible.
(d)The Secretary of State may impose a fee for
the pilot program described in subsection (a). Such fee may not exceed the
aggregate costs associated with such program and shall be credited to the
Department of State for purposes of carrying out such program. Amounts so
credited shall remain available until expended.
(e)Not later than one year after initiating
the pilot program described in subsection (a) and again not later than 90 days
after the conclusion of the two-year period referred to in such subsection, the
Secretary of State shall submit to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the
House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a
report on such pilot program. Each such report shall assess the efficacy of
using secure remote video-conferencing technology as a method for conducting
visa interviews of applicants, including any effect such method may have on an
interviewer’s ability to determine an applicant’s credibility and uncover
fraud, and shall include recommendations on whether such program should be
continued, broadened, or modified.
5.Data on visa interview
wait timesThe Secretary of
State shall post on the Web site of the Department of State the following data
relating to nonimmigrant visas for each United States diplomatic and consular
mission:
(1)The monthly median wait times measured in
calendar days for the past 12 months for a nonimmigrant visa interview
appointment.
(2)The monthly median
wait times measured in calendar days for the past 12 months for a nonimmigrant
visa to be processed.
6.Visa system
performance assessmentThe
Secretary of State shall submit to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the
House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a
report that includes the following:
(1)An annual forecast of demand through 2020
for nonimmigrant visas in the key high-growth markets of Brazil, China, and
India.
(2)A
description of the methodology used to determine the annual demand forecasts in
accordance with paragraph (1) for nonimmigrant visas in Brazil, China, and
India, including—
(A)details on the
internal and external studies utilized to prepare such forecasts; and
(B)details on whether
such methodology utilizes the Department of Commerce’s analysis of visitor
arrival projections.
(3)A
comparison of the Department of State’s nonimmigrant visa demand projections
and the Department of Commerce’s yearly visitor arrival projections for Brazil,
China, and India through 2020 and details on whether the Department of State’s
workload projections for each such country align with the Department of
Commerce’s yearly visitor arrival projections.
(4)A
description of the practices and procedures currently used by each United
States diplomatic and consular mission in Brazil, China, and India to manage
nonimmigrant visa workload.
(5)Information on
short- and long-term plans developed to meet the forecasted demand for
nonimmigrant visas through 2020 in Brazil, China, and India, including facility
expansion needs.
(6)The total number
of limited non-career appointment (LNA) consular officers the Department of
State would need to hire annually through 2020 to maintain a 12 or fewer
calendar day nonimmigrant visa processing standard in Brazil, China, and India,
in accordance with section 3.
(7)Information on the
strategies the Department of State will use to maximize existing consular and
embassy space to accommodate the new LNA personnel referred to in paragraph
(6).
7.If the Secretary of
State can demonstrate no adversarial effects to the United States, the
Secretary may modify or enter into agreements with certain countries on a
non-reciprocal basis to allow for longer visa validity periods than the periods
with such countries that are in existence as of the date of the enactment of
this Act.