Dear Readers:

This week the State Department delivered news that will mean more misery for the American travel industry. Beginning August 1st, nearly all people coming to the US on visas will have to be interviewed personally at a US consulate. The Department's concern about letting in the next terrorist on a visa without an interview has led them to this point. Couple that with a separate new policy that will require all nationals of Visa Waiver policies that may have honorable intentions may actually have devastating effects in ways that our government may not have anticipated. Representatives of the travel industry have stated that the new plan will cost the country billions of dollars in lost tourism spending and result in the loss of thousands of jobs.

What I wonder is just how much the policy will really do to stop a terrorist. Does a consular officer really have the background to be able to size someone up in a couple of minutes in order to determine that they are a threat? Would it not be better to spend the millions of dollars this policy will cost to beef up the technology resources needed to quickly and effectively screen visitors to this country? At some point, we need to run a cost-benefit analysis to determine where we should be spending limited resources in the war on terrorism.

Many of you may have noticed that you are getting this issue on a Monday instead of on Friday or Saturday. We've decided to switch to this new publishing day because it gives us a chance to catch up on the writing that often becomes tough during the busy work week. Our publication is put out by working immigration professionals who deal with client matters every day. The new schedule will allow us a little extra time to get the publication finished each week if we have the weekend available to finish up our writing tasks.

Finally, as always, we remind readers that we're lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients. We would love to discuss becoming your law firm. Just go to http://www.visalaw.com/intake.html to request an appointment or call us at 800-748-3819 or 901-682-6455.

Regards,

Greg Siskind