Foreign crews must appear personally to apply for visas

Foreign crews must appear personally to apply for visas    The U.S. Department of State issued an interim rule Monday that curtails the authority of American consular officials to waive personal appearances by applicants for non-immigrant visas.
   The new rule, effective August 1, “will make it virtually impossible for most foreign crewmembers to obtain U.S. visas. Foreign crewmembers generally do not know, when they are ashore, if they will be serving on a ship that will call in the U.S. in the near future,” said Dennis Bryant, an admiralty attorney in Washington, D.C.
   “The rule also effectively ends the crew list visa, as the shipowner would be required to produce the entire crew for interviewing by a consular official,” Bryant added.
   The State Department said a consular officer may still waive the personal appearance of visa applicants for children 16 years and younger; people 60 or older; NATO and diplomatic personnel; and applicants seeking reissuance of nonimmigrant visas they already possess.
   However, “consular officers will no longer have broad discretion to grant personal appearance waivers” for crew visas, the State Department said.
   “We can’t leave this as it is now. Many foreign seafarers are hired through managing agencies, and it will be extremely difficult for them to appear as individuals before consular officials,” Roger T. Korner, executive director of United Seamen’s Service, told Shippers’ News Wire. “Obviously, there are heightened security concerns that we all must respect, but the interim rule as proposed will cause a great amount of hardship for foreign crewmembers,”
   Public comments will be accepted through Sept. 5. For more information, contact Elizabeth J. Harper at (202) 663-1221.