WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2007-08-13 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
The United States has extended its visa-waiver programme to counter a decline in tourism – and South Africa could be among those countries advanced the privilege.
The US issued more than 50 000 non-immigrant visas to South Africans last year, most for multiple years and for multiple entries, and noted frequent cultural and economic exchanges, but the security of our travel documents and the exit monitoring from the US of local travellers do not yet meet requirements. These are critical qualifications.
South Africa’s tourist visa refusal rate is 5,2 percent. Existing US provisions stipulate a visa refusal rate of less than three percent for waiver consideration. However, the US embassy in Pretoria has confirmed that the adoption of enhanced security measures and the sustained reduction of visa refusal rates would allow more countries, including South Africa, to be considered.
Eventually, a refusal rate of not more than 10 percent in the previous fiscal year could apply. The pressure on US President George Bush to relax entry regulations came mostly from senators – including Joseph Lieberman, the influential chairman of the US senate’s security and governmental affairs committee – concerned about perceptions of American travel policies.
Outside experts such as Adam Sacks, the managing director for tourism economics at Oxford Economics, had noted that the situation was “disastrous when you take into account the fact that the US currency makes travel to the country so attractive”.
Bush signed the new law – following a security bill agreed upon by negotiators from the US house of representatives and the senate – last week on Friday, saying he “appreciated the steps taken to modernise the visa waiver, particularly the additional security measures”, but said he would continue to work with the US congress to bring more allies into the programme.
Dr Jakkie Cilliers of the Institute for Security Studies said the possibility of the visa waiver could present an interesting political denouement on the part of the US, as relations between the US and South Africa “are not the greatest, and have been a bit prickly, especially on the part of South Africa”. He said it could be significant if the waiver was considered, as it might indicate some success on our part to deal with security and strategic concerns.
“The integrity of our passport system is fairly good by African and developing countries’ standards, although forgeries are still an issue – to the extent that Britain has declined emergency passports. I think the improvement of the situation will rely a great deal on home affairs, where population control has been derogated in recent years.”
The department of home affairs did not return calls on Friday.
Among the high-profile cases of South Africans whose visas have been denied upon arrival in the US was that of Professor Adam Habib, the director of the Human Sciences Research Council’s Democracy and Governance research programme.
He was detained at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York last year, where his visa was revoked and he was deported.
The US has had a 17 percent decline in overseas visitors since 9/11.