On August 4, 2004, a Department of State Cable was sent to all United States diplomatic and consular posts describing visa processing information that is to be placed on all post websites by August 20, 2004.  According to the State Department, placing this information on all post websites is intended to reach the foreign and United States public in order to make the visa application and processing procedures more understandable.  On top of displaying processing information, the wait time information, which is currently placed in Consular Consolidated Databases, will also be placed on the post websites for public viewing.

The cable continued by explaining that a selected portion of the Consular Consolidated Database and part of the Post Workflow Statistics information will be posted and updated weekly on the post websites, which can also be found by accessing the CA website travel.state.gov.

The cable further clarified that the visa processing time that will be displayed on the post websites will not include courier handling and delivery time, SAO processing time or administrative processing time.

According to a Department of State press release, the Department invested approximately $1 million in automation for interagency linkages to improve efficiency in the interagency process.  The Department has also invested in staff with over 350 new consular Foreign Service positions added since 2002.