Chennai: Talking tough against fraudulent
methods to obtain American visa, the US Consulate General here
today said it would not tolerate such practices and also
warned genuine visa seekers from falling prey to touts.
"The proportion of false applicants (to genuine ones)
is high. We have no tolerance for fraud documents and other
fraudulent means to obtain a US visa and we are highly
successful in detecting them," US Consul General Andrew T
Simkin said.
Addressing a press conference here on the new online
visa application procedure for a non-immigrant visa, "DS-160",
he said consular officers were "highly successful in detecting
fraudulent documents and applicants with false stories."
Simkin said 80 per cent of the applicants received
visas while the rejections included both failure in meeting
stipulated requirements as well as fraudulent methods to
obtain the travel document.
Declining to quantify the number of fraudulent visa
cases, he said some "honest" applicants fell prey to
"visa-fixers" who managed to trick gullible applicants by
misleading them with wrong facts regarding documents and the
interview, all for money.
"Be honest and meet all requirements," chief of the
Consular section, Bryan Dalton, said adding that the Consulate
was coordinating with Tamil Nadu Government officials against
visa fraud.
On the salient features of applying for a visa through
the form DS-160, he said it was a "more streamlined, efficient
and smart process which required less paperwork as against the
previous procedures."
-PTI
