A July 4 cable was sent by the Department of State to all diplomatic and consular posts describes a new initiative to facilitate business travel to the US in order to promote United States commerce abroad.  The Department of State will look to ‘business-related visa referral and facilitation programs’ to aid the many US companies that are appealing to the Department of State to help them effectively compete in the international marketplace. 

These visa referral and facilitation programs aspire to create close contact and relations with visa processing posts in order to ensure that legitimate foreign business traveler’s visa applications experience full and especially timely attention.

The new program initiative relies on such relationships as those which posts have with local American Chamber of Commerce organizations, and on the business liaison programs that some posts already have in place.  Liaison programs exist in such cities as Seoul, Buenos Aires, Taipei, London, Tokyo and Beijing, and work towards speeding visa processing by providing readily available appointments. 

The Department of State, therefore, has asked all visa processing posts without any special visa program to develop an outline for their own liaison program that will advance American business travel.  The Department of State stressed its belief that developing a uniform program for all posts would not best meet the business travel goal.  Rather, it asserts that each post must consider the ‘local needs and patterns of travel’ to develop a program that would best support American commerce aboard in their area.